Dare You to Let Me Be Your One and Only
by RandomVictorian
Summary: The Doctor and Clara get married, and set off on a whole new adventure as surprises come in threes. (I know that's cryptic, I'm trying not to give spoilers here do you realise how hard that is?) Rated T for my own paranoia. (Disclaimer: Regrettably, I do not own Doctor Who).
1. Chapter 1

**jacks marie keeps asking me to try again with a story where the Doctor and Clara are married. I was going to make it a short one in my 'Perfect in Every Way' collection; but I decided to make it a whole thing. The title is taken from "One and Only" by Adele. I'm rubbish at titles, but thought that would work. I've made myself a pot of tea and decided I'm not sleeping tonight; so yes. Hehe, I've finally gone insane! YAY! No wait, that's not good, is it? Um, never mind then. Well...um...yes. Let's begin. This will probably fluctuate a bit between the Doctor's and Clara's POVs. **

* * *

It wasn't time for the Doctor to come yet, but she heard the TARDIS sound. She sighed, thinking he must have got the time wrong again, but she didn't have anything to do that couldn't wait until they got back, and the Maitlands had already left for the day, so she grabbed a jacket and her satchel and went out.

The Doctor was dressed up. Well, he was always dressed up, but this was more than usual. He looked like he was dressed for a very special occasion.

'What's going on?' Clara asked.

'Clara, I've decided that we can't keep going on like this.'

She crossed her arms and tilted her head to the side. 'What?'

'Travelling like this. You always leaving and saying "See you next Wednesday!" and walking away in your tight little skirt and leaving me all alone.'

'So...so where's this going? You want me to leave? I don't understand...'

'No! Don't you see? I _don't_ want you to leave! Not ever.'

She'd never seen him like this before. This wasn't the Doctor. He had an intense look in his eyes, his voice was so earnest and filled with emotion and passion. All she could do was stare at him. Was he sick? Had he picked up some sort of alien virus? And _why _was he dressed up like that?

'I want you to stay here. Forever. With me.'

She felt her breath escape her lungs. 'I'm sorry?' It was not what she wanted to say, and not how she wanted to say it.

'I don't do this. I don't let myself get attached this way to humans because I know I'll always outlive them. But I don't care this time, Clara! I can't help it. You're so...impossible.' He stepped towards her and took her face in both of his hands. 'What you did for me...And it's not just that Clara, it's everything about you. Since I first met you, in that Dalek asylum, you were so clever, so brave, so funny. You are always just what I need and I...' his voice trailed off.

Clara couldn't believe this. It had to be a dream; he wasn't like this. Or maybe he was; maybe he just was good at hiding it. She supposed that after a thousand years, one got used to holding things back. If you didn't, you'd go mad.

'So...' she still couldn't speak. She thought she knew where this was going, and she didn't know what she would say. She almost didn't want this to happen, because she didn't know how she could possibly say yes. And she really did not want to say no.

'So, Clara Oswald. My impossible, beautiful Clara, will you marry me?'

'Will I what?' Again, not what she really wanted to say. But she didn't know what she should.

'I understand. It was silly to ask. I'm a silly old man. You're young. You should be doing young things. With young people. We can pretend this never -'

'No, that's not what I meant. I was just surprised is all. You want me to marry you? Me?'

'Yes. I do.'

'Is that why you're all dressed up? You want to get married _now?'_

'Well, yes. That was the idea. There's a lovely planet where they do the most beautiful weddings, and I thought maybe we could go there right now.'

'Okay, I'm saying yes, but on my own terms. Can you accept that?'

'You're the boss,' he said, with a slight air of disappointment.

'First, you're going to properly meet my family. I'm not going to just go and tell my dad, "hello, this is my husband. He's an alien time-traveller you've never met." I want him to meet you first.'

'But what if he doesn't like me?'

'He will! I know he will.' She took a deep breath and continued. 'Also, we aren't getting married on some other planet.'

'But -'

'No. What would I tell my friends and family? I can't just tell them they can't come to my wedding, they'll want to know why. And how am I supposed to tell them that I'm getting married on a different planet?'

'Good point.'

'And one more thing.'

'I'm all ears.'

'I'll not have you skipping straight to the wedding day and leaving me to prepare for it all alone. People would talk. You're going to stay here for a month -'

He started to protest.

'_For one month,'_ she said firmly, 'until the wedding.'

'Why do we have to wait a month to get married?'

'Because weddings take time, and as it is, it's going to seem rather hasty to everyone who hasn't met you. I'm probably going to get an earful from a couple of people.'

'Can we go meet your dad now? Please? Get it over with?'

'Sure, but not with you dressed like that!'

'Oh, yes, want to seem normal.'

'Glad you understand.'

He ran off towards the wardrobe and returned in his usual ensemble. 'This better?'

Clara pursed her lips, not wanting to hurt his feelings. After a moment's consideration, she gave in. 'I guess we could say that you are a professor or something.'

Clara said that they absolutely could not show up at her dad's house in the TARDIS, so they went in her car, the Doctor nervously tapping his foot the whole way. She laughed at him.

'You can relax, he'll like you. I promise.'

'How do you know?'

'Because _I _liked you right away, every single time I ever met you, no matter the circumstances. And that means that you're very likeable. Also...' her voice trailed off as she considered her words carefully. 'My dad and I...we aren't very close. But he does want me to be happy. He'll like you for making me happy, if nothing else.'

When they got to Clara's dad's house, the Doctor could feel his hearts starting to pound with nervousness. He concentrated on how to be normal. What kinds of things should he say? Clara was already knocking on the door. He'd faced Daleks with more courage than he felt right now.

Clara's dad opened the door. 'Clara. Well, it's certainly been awhile. I never hear from you any more.'

'Well, you know that the Maitlands wouldn't mind if you came to see me once in awhile,' she said, with a very forced laugh.

The Doctor could actually feel the tension between them. He could feel hurt and distance and things that hadn't healed properly.

'So, who is this?' Mr Oswald asked, after a moment of them all standing there.

'Oh, this is the Doctor. We're...Can we come inside?'

'Oh, of course! Come in.'

Immediately, the Doctor was hit by what could only be described as stagnation. It was as if everything in the dusty little house had been paused, and no one remembered to hit resume. The Doctor guessed, correctly, that Mr Oswald had not changed a thing since his wife's death. Mr Oswald gestured them towards a faded couch, which feebly offered a pastel floral pattern. They sat down, and he sat in a matching chair opposite them.

'So, Dad, this is Doctor. Doctor, this is my dad.'

'Doctor...?'

'Oh, that's just what people call me!' he said, standing up to shake Mr Oswald's hand. 'My name's actually John Smith. Nice to meet you. Clara's told me all about you.' That wasn't really true, Clara never really mentioned him much, but it sounded like a nice thing to say.

'I wish that I could say the same thing for you.' He turned to Clara. 'Who exactly is this?'

'He's...well...we travel.'

'What?'

'He takes me places. I've always wanted to travel, you know that. So we go on little trips together on my days off.'

Mr Oswald was frighteningly quiet.

'And...we came to tell you that...well, we're engaged.'

'What? How long have you known him?'

'Quite a while. I always meant to introduce you, I just...never got around to it I guess.'

'I can assure you, Mr Oswald, that I always take the very best care of your daughter. She's the most important thing in the Universe to me. That might not mean a whole lot to you, but believe me, I know a thing or two about the Universe.'

Clara gave him a warning look, obviously fearing that he would say too much. 'He's...an astronomer.'

'Ah, I see.' Mr Oswald still eyed him warily.

'So...' Clara said, beginning slowly and then just letting the words come out. 'We're getting married in a month.'

'A month? But I don't even know this man!'

'But _I_ know him.' Clara said, with hardly concealed tension in her voice. 'And I love him.'

After awhile of more awkward conversation, Clara and the Doctor left.

'I just realised,' Clara said, as they got back into her car. 'Where are you going to stay for the month?'

'Oh, I'll stay in the TARDIS of course. But I promise not to sneak off. Cross my hearts. I want to be there for every second, Clara. Can't risk overshooting and ending up missing the wedding!'

Clara drove and hummed along with the radio, and they sat in comfortable silence. Finally, the Doctor spoke.

'Clara, after we get married...I'd understand if you wanted to settle down, get a house, that kind of thing. Normal life. You deserve that, if that's what you want.'

'What I want - what I've always wanted - is to travel. You know that. I want to move into the TARDIS, and I want you to keep showing me the stars.'

He leaned over and kissed her on the cheek, making her smile. 'Oh Clara, a month will be too long to wait.'

* * *

**I'm going to end this here because it's rather long as it is. Just a note: I got the impression that Clara and her Dad aren't very close, from the way they were standing at her mum's grave and from the fact that we never see him or hear Clara talk about him. So anyway, that's just my interpretation. Reviews?**


	2. Chapter 2

**Hello everyone! Fiftieth anniversary tomorrow! Well, it's 3:30 as I type this so I guess then technically it's...OH MY STARS IT'S TODAY! Obviously I'm not going to be updating tomorrow, (or today? Feeling confused now...) because, well, it's the fiftieth so we'll be getting our Whouffle there! And, also, I'm going to a party at a friend's house and I might stay over. We're all going to dress up and act like complete nerds. I'm going to be Clara which was the lazy choice since I dress like her all the time anyway but hey, I ****_am _****lazy, and I'll be the first to admit that. **

**So anyways, we'll talk story now. I'm kind of not so sure how this is going to go. Confession: I am not a wedding person. I don't get excited about weddings; I usually get sick just before weddings (it's really weird and I promise not a convenient way out, though it does sound like it when you put this all together...) But we'll see what happens. **

* * *

Clara walked into the TARDIS with an exasperated huff.

'What's wrong?' the Doctor asked.

'Everything. My dad's being difficult, none of my friends are happy with me because I never told them about you -'

'You never told them about me?'

'You aren't exactly the easiest subject to bring up. You are an alien who takes me to different planets and times. That's a little hard to talk about at parties.'

'Good point.'

'Besides, I haven't done much with them lately, not since I met you.'

'Why's that?'

'Because being with you - doing the scary stuff, saving worlds, watching the way you care for people; the things they all talk about suddenly become so pointless. When you see the things we see...it's hard to go back and care about those little things.'

'Oh, but Clara, those little things are important too. That's what makes humans so human.'

'I know, but still. It's just not been the same. So they feel like I've been spending all my time with some secret boyfriend instead of them. I can see why they would be upset. And Angie's been an absolute _pleasure_ lately, because she got a boyfriend behind her dad's back, I found out about it and let her know that she should tell her dad or else I would, and then the boyfriend broke up with her, completely unconnected but of course she's not being reasonable. And so she was mad at me for that and then come to find out that we're getting married, well, it doesn't seem fair to her, and in a way, it is a bit hypocritical. I mean, here I am marrying someone that I never told my dad about. Although the facts still stand that I am twenty-four years old and she's only fifteen.' Clara sighed deeply. 'This is supposed to be happy! And nothing is going right!'

The Doctor stepped forward and hugged her comfortingly, rubbing circles up and down her back. 'It's going to be fine. We'll work it out. You'll introduce me and it will all work out.'

Clara shook her head, pulling back slightly so that she could look at him. 'That planet you were talking about. Let's go.'

'Now wait a minute, Clara, slow down and -'

'No, I want to go now. Who cares about the normal way. We're not normal. Let's go.'

'You're doing this just to spite everyone, I can tell. You're going to regret this.'

She tossed her hair back off her shoulders and looked up at him unflinchingly. 'I'm not going to regret this at all.'

The Doctor hesitated, his hand over a lever on the console. 'Are you sure about this?'

'I've never been so sure of anything in my life.'

'Well then, Clara Oswald...Geronimo!'

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**Very short chapter, random abrupt ending (maybe I should change my pen-name to that instead of RandomVictorian: 'RandomAbruptEnding.' At least people would know what to expect). But it's really early morning and I want a bit of sleep before the fiftieth party so this will have to do! **


	3. Chapter 3

**Ugh I'm starting to hate this. No idea what to do with it. I really really don't like this. We'll see what happens, eh? **

* * *

The TARDIS landed, and Clara hurried over to the door, trembling with excitement or nervousness, she wasn't sure. She stopped when she noticed that the Doctor hadn't moved from the console.

'Coming?'

He just looked at her searchingly. She didn't understand what was going on.

'Doctor?'

'Clara, this is a bad idea. It has the words "bad idea" written all over it.'

'And why is that? You wanted to come here at first. You were all dressed up and ready to go before you even asked me. So what's changed? Are you getting cold feet?'

'No, it's not that. Never that. I didn't know what you wanted then. Once I found out that what you wanted was a proper earth wedding, I was more than happy to do that.'

'But this is what I want now.'

'Is it? Is it really, Clara? Because we have one time to do this, to get married to each other. It had better be the way you want it, because there won't be any going back. And the last thing I want is for you to regret one tiny detail.'

'It is what I want. I won't regret a thing.'

He didn't seem convinced, but he put on a smile and joined her by the doors, kissing her tenderly. 'Right then, Clara my love. Are you ready to get married?'

'Yes.'

'Then you're going to need this.' He fumbled about in his pocket for a few moments before removing a TARDIS blue box. He opened it and showed her what was inside. It was a beautiful wedding ring, the shape of the setting vaguely reminiscent of a star. It was so beautiful, so perfect. Exactly what she would have picked. He slipped it onto her trembling finger, and she looked at it a moment, her face starting to tremble as her hand did. She was fighting back tears.

'I don't know why I'm crying.'

'It's because this...' he picked up her left hand and pressed a kiss into it, just above where the ring was. 'This is the day that everything begins. Our whole life. Together.'

He opened the TARDIS doors. They were inside an office building that looked like any old earth office building, except that some of the workers were human and some were not.

'Wrong place?'

'No, no. This is where you arrange everything. Come on.' He led her to a desk. 'Hello, I'm the Doctor, this is Clara Oswald, and we want to get married.'

The woman at the desk, who was human or appeared to be, started filling out a slip of paper. She signed it and handed it over. 'Go to that lift over there. Floor 2, room 11.'

'Thank you.' They went to said room, and found an elderly lady there, sitting at a desk and reading, humming to herself. She seemed very old, and her hair had turned a lovely, even shade of snowy-white. Her eyes were large, kind, brown eyes, her nose tipped adorably at the end, and as she smiled over her book, little dimples formed on her cheeks. She looked familiar.

When she noticed their presence, she glanced up. 'Can I help you?'

The Doctor stepped forward and handed her his slip of paper. Clara eyed her curiously.

'Ha, that's funny. Clara Oswald, is it? My name is Clarisse Oswald.'

Clara barely suppressed a gasp as she glanced quickly at the Doctor, who seemed calm enough.

'That so?' he asked.

'We have a bit of a resemblance, too, don't we dearie? Though you're young and pretty, yet. Distant relatives, maybe.' She stood up and walked out from behind her desk, patting Clara's cheek as she passed her. 'Shall we get started, then?' She went to the wall at their left and pressed it lightly. It sprung to life. 'Now then, take a seat, please.'

As she spoke, two chairs that looked something like dental chairs came out of the wall behind them. They each sat in one. She worked busily, putting odd caps on their heads and humming. Clara reached out to grab the Doctor's hand, looking at him questioningly.

'It's okay, Clara. They scan each person's mind and combine the likes and dislikes of both people to create the perfect compromise for the wedding.'

'That's smart.'

'It is, isn't it?'

Things started to pop up on the screen in front of them. The Doctor's suit - simple, black and white, with a bowtie of course -; Clara's dress, which was off-white and fitted, flaring out below her hips in sassy little ruffles; a beautiful cake and some fish fingers and custard; a bouquet of red roses; the venue a beautiful garden at night under a sky that was bursting with stars.

'It's magnificent, all of it. It's perfect,' Clara said, her voice barely more than a breath.

'I know, it is. It so, completely is!' He squeezed her hand. 'Are you sure, though? Are you positive?'

She smiled and shook her head at him. 'Obviously!'

They thanked Clarisse, who pressed the screen to print a piece of paper with some sort of code. The Doctor explained to Clara that the code contained all of the details of the wedding, and they could redeem it whenever they were ready.

'Well come on then! What are we waiting for?'

He hesitated. 'I don't want to get married all by ourselves. I want others to enjoy it with us.'

'Do you have someone you'd like to invite?'

He hesitated again. 'Come back to the TARDIS.'

She followed him there, and he rummaged about beneath the console, muttering to himself. Finally, he emerged again, holding a small, elaborately-carved box.

'Been waiting for the right time to use this.'

'What is it?'

He opened it, revealing a button. 'I obtained this a long time ago. Last one in the Universe. I can bring back anyone I like with the press of this button. As many people as I want, actually. But only one time, and only for a few hours. That's why I haven't used it yet. I've been waiting for the right time.'

'Well go on then, push the button. I wouldn't mind meeting some of your old friends again.'

'I will. But before I do, are you sure there's no one you'd like to invite? Come on, Clara. Don't regret this.'

She thought a moment. 'What if I invited my dad? Do you think he'd be...okay with all of this?'

'I think so.'

'I think he should be here. We used to be close, really close. Until my mum...' she blinked away tears. She was having an emotional day. 'I think it's time we fixed the damage.'

He cupped her face tenderly with one of his hands, smiling encouragingly. 'I think so too.'

He flew the TARDIS back to Clara's dad's house. She insisted on going alone to the door, leaving the Doctor waiting in the TARDIS.

Mr Oswald answered immediately. 'Saw you walking up. I don't see your car though.'

'Dad, I have a lot of things to explain, but it might be easier if you just came with me first. Oh, but you'll want to put on a suit really quick. Dress for...dress for a wedding.' She could barely bring herself to say it. It was so strange, and what must he think of her?

'A wedding?!'

'Dad please, just do it. I'll explain in just a mo', right after you come back.'

He invited her inside, but she said she'd wait, and he promised to be fast. Five minutes later, he was back, wearing a dingy old suit from the old days. It didn't fit him well any more. He'd grown so thin and it hung on him. Clara bit back the feeling of pain.

'You look nice, Dad. Now come on. I'll do my best to explain.' She led him to the TARDIS, and he looked at her curiously. Taking a deep breath, she flung the doors open and looked at him, waiting for his reaction.

He slowly walked inside, looking about, marvelling at it. 'It's...bigger...on the inside...'

'I get that a lot,' the Doctor said, startling them both. He was smiling, arms crossed, leaning against the console. 'So, Mr Oswald, what do you think of my ship?'

'It's not possible.'

'The best things usually aren't.'

'How...?'

'I'm an alien.'

He turned to Clara with a disgusted look on his face.

'Don't worry, Dad. He's got two hearts but other than that his body is pretty much human. I mean, I think so...' She turned to the Doctor, blushing a bit.

'Yes, yes. All human-y wuman-y. Though technically we don't resemble humans, you humans resemble us Time Lords. We came first.'

'You do like to rub that in.'

'But...I don't understand...what is this place?'

'My ship. The TARDIS. Time and Relative Dimension in Space. She's a time machine. Can travel anywhere in time and space, and I take your daughter on all kinds of adventures in here. We've come to pick you up for our wedding.'

'You're wedding?!'

'Dad, I did tell you to dress up for a wedding. Don't be too shocked.'

'But he's an alien! And you hardly know him!'

'I've actually know him for a thousand years, sort of. Long story. And like I said, I don't mind about that. He makes me feel so happy and so safe. I love him.' She went and stood next to him, and he drew her close to him with an arm around her shoulder, nestling that big chin into her hair.

Mr Oswald sighed. They knew he was going to give in. 'You certainly are sweet together. And he makes you happy...'

'Will you come, Dad? Will you please come to my wedding?'

'Oh, my daughter...' He walked towards her and the Doctor let go of her so that she could meet him. They hugged each other for the first time in years, and Clara remembered why she loved her dad so much. He let go of her and smiled. 'I wouldn't miss my little girl's wedding for anything.'

'I only wish mum could be here.'

They were all very quiet for a few moments. Then Clara cleared her throat.

'So, Doctor. Are you going to push the button?'

He opened the box and pressed the button. Then he beamed at Clara. 'The others should be here any moment.'

* * *

**Yelch. Oh, I should mention that the Clara echo was completely random, just because I can. Probably not important to the story. Reviews? Please? **


	4. Chapter 4

**Placeholder. See next chapter. **


	5. Chapter 5

**Hello! So I had the idea of bringing back some companions and possibly Doctors for the wedding, but then I got so blocked. Could you guys help me out? Ideas, maybe? I just can't think of anything. However, I do have this scene which happens AFTER the wedding, and have to write it now or I'll forget it. So I'll write it, post it, then later write the wedding chapter and put it where it belongs, before this one, if that makes any sense. **

* * *

The Doctor carried Clara through the TARDIS doors, down the corridor, and then stopped. He set her down.

'Are you ready, Clara, to see our bedroom?'

'You make it sound exciting.'

'It will be. Actually, it's our wedding present from the TARDIS. I have no idea what it looks like!'

'Well that is exciting, then! Thank you, TARDIS.'

The TARDIS made a pleased noise.

The Doctor smiled excitedly at Clara, then opened the door.

Clara's first thought was that it was enormous. The ceilings alone had to have been at least fifteen feet high and the room was just huge. It was filled with ornate candelabras and the candles were lighted, bathing the room in soft, flattering light. The bed stood at the far end opposite them, and it was enormous as well, bigger than king-sized. It had a canopy with gauzy white curtains. Between them and the bed was a fountain. Seriously, a fountain. At the far right was an inviting fire with two TARDIS blue armchairs that were just waiting to be curled up in, and bookshelves up almost to the top of that ceiling. The far left was sort of a dressing room, with a chaise lounge, a vanity, a screen, and two doors, which they later discovered led, respectively, to an en-suite and a spacious walk-in closet.

Clara looked up at the Doctor, excitement in her eyes, and he smiled down at her.

'I think the TARDIS is the mother-in-law of the year,' Clara declared.

'I'll have to do something to thank her. Let her pick a new desktop, maybe.'

'We can find something real nice to do later. Come on, Chin-boy!' She smiled and winked seductively before picking her dress up above her knees and running off into the room. He swallowed and followed her, his hearts beating nervously. But she stopped at the fountain, kicking off her shoes and wading in.

'Clara! You're in your wedding dress!'

She smiled deviously. 'You're right.' She climbed back out. 'Take it off?'

His hearts beat faster as he took a step towards her, helping her get it off. Now in her bra and knickers, she jumped back into the fountain, which came up almost to her waist. She splashed him. 'Oh my stars, I got your suit all wet. You'll want to take that off.'

He blushed and started to undress. Clara lazily let herself float on her back. 'Coming in?'

'Yes.' He was in his pants now, and he got into the fountain with her.

* * *

In the fuzzy moment between wake and sleep, Clara had the biggest panic attack of her life, before remembering that she and the Doctor were married. He was still sleeping, and had rolled half onto her during the night. Squirming out from under him, she was careful not to wake him, because she wanted to surprise him by making breakfast. She grabbed the first article of clothing she could find, which happened to be his shirt. It was enormous on her - a dress, really - and she had to roll the sleeves to almost half their length. Cautiously tip-toeing out of the room, she closed the door behind her and set off for the kitchen.

After walking through the corridors for a bit, she came to the door labelled 'kitchen' and opened it. She was looking into their bedroom, with the motionless Doctor in the bed. Confused, she closed the door and continued on until she came to another door labelled as the kitchen. That was also, in fact, the bedroom. After a couple more times of this, she was getting really cross. And then she heard a muffled chuckle. Running to the bed, she poked an accusing finger into her husband's chest.

'You _are_ awake! You've been awake! This is your fault!'

He looked up at her with puppy eyes. 'The bed was cold without you. I asked the TARDIS to bring you back here.'

'Yeah? Well I was _going _to make you breakfast, but now you don't get to have any.'

'Breakfast can wait. Bed? Please?'

She sighed and climbed into the bed, snuggling into his arms. 'It's ten o'clock in the morning earth time. I always feel completely disgusting lying in this late.'

'Well this isn't always. This is our first morning together.'

_Their first morning. First of many._

'Yes. Suppose we should make it last.'

They stayed in bed for another hour, which surprised Clara because he usually couldn't sit still for a minute. They talked some, but mostly just laid in silence, enjoying the sound of each other's breathing, enjoying the fact that this was the first morning of their new life together.

'Come on, it's eleven. I feel properly disgusting now, and I'm going to take a shower.'

'_We're _going to take a shower.'

'Oh, you want to join me? Come on then.' She started towards the en-suite.

'No - well yes, but not in the actual shower. I was thinking the fountain.'

'You want to bathe in the fountain?'

'Look, the TARDIS already got it ready for us.'

He was right. There were bubbles in the fountain, two towels folded neatly beside it, along with a tray that held shampoo, conditioner, soap, and all the other things one would need to shower.

* * *

**Random abrupt ending, got bored. Will write wedding soon, need ideas. **


	6. Chapter 6

**So...there's not a lot of continuity from the last chapter because there just is not. **

**Also: change of plans with the wedding! Mwahahaha, it's going to take a while before you get to read it! I got an idea from NancyBoy.87 and...well you'll find out. :D**

**Oh, and Aminka: I couldn't reply because you're a guest, but if you want to translate my story, you are one hundred per cent welcome, so long as you say that I wrote it. **

* * *

They had been married for hardly more than a week before the Doctor was wanting to start a family. Clara could understand this, after all, he hadn't been a dad in a very long time. But it was the way he went about his not-so-subtle hints that got on her nerves.

'Oh! Look that that family, Clara! Don't they look so happy?'

'Oh! Look at this, Clara! If someone we know has a baby...or if we ever had a baby...we could get this for it!'

'Oh! Clara! Look at all the books the TARDIS has on raising children! Might come in handy some day, eh?'

She thought it was kind of cute, and wouldn't have minded too much. But then the TARDIS got in on it, and it wasn't so cute anymore. One morning, her pills disappeared from the bathroom counter. She knew for a fact that they had been there, and she knew for a fact that they hadn't been moved by herself or the Doctor. It had been the TARDIS. She didn't mention it to the Doctor though, because he was so pleased when she and the TARDIS got along.

The TARDIS kept doing little things like making them materialise next to schools with kids out playing or in the baby section of a shop. Little things that Clara could ignore. But then one day, while wandering through corridors, she came across a fully-furnished nursery. That was the last straw.

'Okay, you're destroying your status as the best mother-in-law in the Universe,' Clara said, looking up at the ceiling. 'I can let all that other stuff go, but I'm going to be the one who decorates the nursery!'

She stormed to the console room and found the Doctor beneath the console, making repairs.

'Oh hello Clara!'

She crossed her arms and glared at him.

'What is it? Has the TARDIS done something again?' He looked up at the console. 'Are you being mean to her again? You were getting along so well!'

'Oh, this has nothing to do with the TARDIS. This is between me and you.'

He looked a bit nervous. 'Okay?'

'Why don't you just ask me.'

'Sorry?'

'Just say it. Just say, "Clara, I want to have a baby."'

'I...'

'I've seen the game you're playing, and now the TARDIS is in on it too. Can't we just talk about it like a normal couple?'

'I...I guess that would be better...I was just afraid of you saying no.'

'Well ask me and find out.'

He looked at her uncertainly.

'Go on. Say it. Repeat after me. "Clara..."'

''Clara..."'

'"I would like..."'

'"I would like..."'

'"...to have a baby."'

'"...to have a baby." _Can_ we?'

'Yes. But not right away. We _just_ got married, Chin-boy. We have all the time in the world.'

'Whenever you're ready. I don't want to rush you into anything.'

'Thanks. See? Not so bad.'

'No, I guess not.'

She hugged him, which was a bit difficult because he was holding tools and sitting in his little swing.

A year later, Clara had something to tell the Doctor...

* * *

**Wow I rushed that. Whoops. **


	7. Chapter 7

**Sorry it's been so long. I have one teeny idea and I wanted to flesh it out but whatever, I'm just going to write it now.**

* * *

One morning over breakfast, when Clara was absolutely certain, she decided it was time to tell him. She got up to bring him more coffee, in order to give herself a moment to collect her thoughts. Then, as she poured his coffee, she casually said, 'I've got a surprise for you. Something you've wanted for a very long time.'

He jumped up from the table, hugging her close and exclaiming, 'That's wonderful news!'

She was a bit taken aback. 'So...you know then? You know what I was going to say?'

He let go of her, and she could see that he was practically jumping up and down. 'Yes! Our anniversary is coming up and I've been hinting for a while.'

She was confused and speechless for a moment. 'You wanted a baby for your anniversary present?'

'Baby?!'

'Yes! A baby. I'm having a baby. What did you think?'

'Ohhhh. Well that's tremendous news!' He gave her another big hug.

'What did you think I was talking about anyway?'

'Doesn't matter.'

'No, really, I'm curious.'

'Oh, nothing. Just, I saw this TARDIS blue fez a while back on that one planet...you know, the one where we stayed in that lovely romantic resort that I took you to because I'm such a wonderful husband...'

'And then you got us kicked out. Yes. I remember.'

'Oh, yes...forgot about that bit.'

'Not surprised.'

'Well anyway, I saw this TARDIS blue fez and I thought it might be nice...But a baby is even better! That's the best present ever! Is it a girl or a boy? When will it be born? How long have you known? What will we call it? Where will we take it first? That's very important, you know, the first planet a child gets to see. And I'll teach it to tie a bowtie and to like fezzes and you can teach it to make souffles but proper souffles not nasty ones - actually I'll take over the culinary lessons. I can make amazing omelettes as you know my dear. And it will be the most precious thing in the Universe and...'

'Doctor?'

'Yes?'

'Slow down,' she laughed. 'We've got plenty of time. I just found out about it.'

'I guess we'll have to tell your family and friends! Let's go!' He started to run out of the kitchen, but Clara grabbed him by the back of his coat.

'Wait! Not just yet.'

He looked at her, completely bewildered.

'I had a friend once. Found out she was pregnant and was so excited that she told everyone right away. And then she lost the baby.'

'That's not going to happen!'

'But it could. I just don't want to tell anyone until I'm further along.'

'Well, shouldn't we at least tell your father?'

'Oh no, definitely not him.'

'But why not?'

Clara was becoming frustrated because she had no idea how to explain herself. 'I just don't want to, all right?'

'Clara...'

'I want to be alone now.' She quickly walked out of the room and kept walking until she reached the library, curling up on the sofa. She didn't know how to explain to him without hurting his feelings.

After a few minutes, she noticed the Doctor hovering in the doorway. She smiled and patted the spot next to her, and he bounded towards it like a joyful puppy, snuggling up next to her. she giggled.

'Still friends?' he asked her.

'Well, I'm stuck with you, better and worse and all that.' She smiled. 'Always.'

* * *

**I had plans for this chapter but then I started eating chocolate and I got carried away and now I've got a stomach ache and I'm done the end. **


	8. I'm going there

**I decided to post an update every time I get 3 new followers on Tumblr. There's a link in my profile. And oh yes, I totally just went there! :D**


	9. Chapter 8

**So I thought it would be a good idea, that 3 followers thing. I thought I'd get like 3 followers a week maybe. Who'd follow my daft old blog? Well, I got over 20 more followers since I posted that and there's no way I can write that many chapters at once, so I'm changing it to every 10 followers. I'm not getting greedy, I'm being realistic. So I'll give you two chapters. **

* * *

The Doctor was the most enthusiastic father Clara had ever seen. It was a mixture of cute, weird, and annoying. As she was going about her day, he would bend down so that he was at level with her stomach and talk to the baby. It was a bit hard to do anything without tripping over him.

'Doctor, do you think you could go do something else, just for a bit?' she would say, as delicately as she could.

He would get huffy and say, 'Clara, this is between me and the baby.'

It was so ridiculous, but she would almost feel left out.

One night, as they lay in bed in their fort, (the Doctor always liked to pull the bedclothes over their heads and put a torch in the bed, calling it their fort, which Clara found oddly romantic) they started talking names.

'You know what name I really like?' the Doctor said.

'What?'

'Poosh.'

'POOSH?!'

'After the lost moon of Poosh.'

'What?!'

'It's perfect! It could be a boy or a girl, so we could pick it now and not worry about it.'

'We are not naming our child _Poosh. _Agh, that's properly awful can you imagine? What's wrong with you?'

'It was a suggestion.'

'Poosh,' Clara mumbled incredulously. 'Seriously? Poosh?' She rolled onto her stomach, burying her face in her pillow, her body shaking with laughter as the full ridiculousness hit her. 'POOSH!'

'All right, all right...'

She laughed until she cried. '"POOSH! Time for dinner!" "POOSH! Clean your room!" "POOSH! You're in so much trouble right now!"'

She looked up and saw that his feelings were hurt. She stopped laughing and snuggled up next to him. 'Sorry,' she whispered.

He kissed her. 'Not a problem, my dear. So, if not Poosh, what would you name the baby?'

'If it's a girl, Elinor.'

The Doctor screwed up his face. 'Never been a fan of Elinor. Sounds like a disapproving old lady.'

'I think it's beautiful, and we can call her Ellie.'

'Then why not just name her Ellie?'

'Because...' Clara felt like she couldn't explain it without sounding silly, so she chose her words carefully. 'I was named after my gran. It always felt like a burden, carrying her name. When my mum would talk about her, I'd feel like that's how I was expected to be because I had her name. But if we name her something different as her actual, proper name, she can go by Elinor if Ellie isn't who she wants to be. It's silly, I know but...'

'It's not silly. It's beautiful. But I still don't like Elinor. What about...Ella?'

'Ella...Ella for Ellie and Ella for Eleven! And Ella just for Ella, whoever she turns out to be.'

They beamed at each other and tried to high-five, but the blanket got in the way. They giggled and kissed each other.

'It's perfect! It's decided!' the Doctor said, wrapping his arms around her and holding her close.

They lay there for a few moments, thinking about Ella. Then a thought struck Clara.

'But what if it's a boy?'

Back to the drawing board.

* * *

**Next chapter: Boy names! Coming soon, just as quickly as I can write it!**


	10. Chapter 9

**Here's the second chapter and then no more til I get to thirty...which is only four followers away darn it. I'll never get out of this trap! Why did I go there?**

* * *

'Let's just both start suggesting names till we get one we both like,' the Doctor said.

'Okay...Darcy.'

'Why?'

'Like Mr Darcy? _Pride and Prejudice_?'

'I don't want our son to be either prideful or prejudiced.'

Clara rolled her eyes. 'It's a book. Come on, I'll bet you've met Jane Austen.'

'Of course I met her. Never read her books though. I think she fancied me a bit.'

'Everyone fancies you, in your mind.'

'Well, I know that you do, and that's all that counts.'

Clara smiled.

'How about Rory?' the Doctor suggested.

'Lovely name, Rory! Definitely one to think about. What about Jack?'

'No.'

'But -'

'No.'

'I _like_ Jack.'

'No.'

'Okay...What would _you_ like to call him? Besides Poosh.'

'All planet names ruled out?'

'Yes.'

'I have a funny feeling you would be against calling him "Fez."'

'You would be correct in your assertion.'

'I'm not good at this!'

'Don't rush it.'

'Ella was so easy. Could we just call him Ella?'

'Absolutely not.'

'Stormaggedon, Dark Lord of All?'

'What on earth?'

'I knew a baby once, called himself that. Until he decided he'd rather go by Alfie, his real name.'

'And what does that tell you?' She answered the question herself, 'That even a baby knows how rubbish that name is!'

'We could call him Stormie for short though.'

'I had a dog once called Stormie. We're not calling our baby that.'

'Fine. What about Eli? It's like Ellie, but for a boy!'

'Oooh, hey that's actually good. Now you're starting to get some good ideas.'

'Or...or Elvern.'

'Huh?'

'See, if you say Eleven really fast, it kind of sounds like Elvern, which is a name.'

'Um...keep thinking.'

'Okay...Ellis?'

'Sounds distinguished. Bit old fashioned perhaps. Kind of like it though. What about Clarence?'

'Now you're trying to name him after yourself.'

'And why not, Mr let's-name-him-Elvern?'

'Okay...you win for now.'

'Let's think about this later. We've got plenty of time.'

* * *

'I'm nineteen weeks!' Clara announced one morning, after looking at the calendar. It felt weird keeping a calendar in the TARDIS.

'That so?' the Doctor asked, tying his bowtie.

'And you know what that means!' she smiled excitedly at him.

He smiled excitedly back, and they stood there for a few moments, excitedly smiling, Clara waiting for the Doctor to say something.

'...You don't know what that means, do you?'

'No, haven't got a clue.'

'Well, I read that around eighteen to twenty weeks you should be able to tell the baby's gender.'

'Oh. Oh! So the naming question will be solved!'

'I really should go in for a check up. Been meaning to, but you just never know. I mean, since you're an alien...'

'You should have told me! I know just the doctor to take you to! Come on!'

* * *

'Doctor!' said the woman who was entering the room where the Doctor and Clara sat, but her voice trailed off when she saw him. Clara recognised the woman. It was Martha, who she remembered from one of her echoes. Martha hadn't seen her though, so she wouldn't remember her. And Clara realised that she wouldn't recognise the Doctor either, which was why she was staring at them both curiously.

'Martha Smith! How are you and Mickey?' The Doctor said.

'It _is_ you! You've changed.'

'Yes! I have. But I still remember the woman who walked the earth!'

'And who's this then?'

'My lovely wife, Clara.'

'Nice to meet you Clara.' Turning to the Doctor, 'So, I don't think you just came to say hello. Not really your thing, is it, Doctor? Last time I saw you, you didn't speak a single word to me. Just stood there looking sad.'

'I was just saying goodbye before I changed. But no, as nice as it is to see you, we're here because Clara's pregnant and, well, since I'm a Time Lord...'

'Oh I see. Got to have someone who can keep a secret in case they aren't human?'

'Yes. That's the idea. She just needs an ultrasound.'

'I'm nineteen weeks and we're excited to find out if it's a boy or girl,' Clara added.

'Of course,' Martha smiled. 'I remember when I had my first...'

The Doctor's mouth dropped open. 'You didn't...?'

'Mickey and I have two now.'

'Two? Oh you humans! I go away for a few hundred years and you've gone and had two children!'

Martha smiled. 'A few hundred years? What have you been doing in all that time?'

'Quite a lot. That's all stories for another day, though.'

'Right. Better get you an ultrasound, Clara. Follow me.'

Clara winced slightly at the discomfort as Martha moved the transducer about her abdomen.

'Are you in pain?!' the Doctor asked.

'No, don't worry about it,' Clara said with a little laugh. 'I'm fine.'

'So,' the Doctor asked Martha. 'Boy or girl?'

'Boy and girls.'

'What?!' Clara said, almost sitting up from the shock.

'You're having triplets!'

Clara turned her head to face the Doctor, wearing her most dangerous face. 'Are you enjoying today?'

'Yes!' he was practically dancing. 'Three babies! Babies cubed!'

'Good,' she said, in a low, calm voice. 'Because this is your very last day.'

'Eh?'

'When we get out of here, I'm going to kill you. And then, after you regenerate, I'm going to kill you again. And I'm going to keep killing you until you're out of regenerations because of what you've done!'

'What? What have I done?'

Martha cleared her throat. 'Everything else looks good. Also, they only have one heart each, thought you'd like to know. I'm just going to step out and let you two...talk...' She quickly left the room.

'Seriously Clara, what did I do?'

'I don't know but somehow this is your fault!'

'Clara, we're having _triplets_!' As if she'd somehow missed it. 'It's going to be so much fun!'

'Wrong. _We_ are _raising_ triplets. _IF _I let you survive. _I_ am doing all the having, and believe me, that's not going to be fun.'

'Two girls and a boy...'

Clara couldn't help but smile at the thought. 'I feel bad for poor Elvern.'

'Who's Elvern?'

She covered her mouth, then slowly uncovered it and whispered, 'I called him Elvern.'

'Elvern wins!'

'No it doesn't!'

'Elvern!'

'Stop!'

When they were back in the TARDIS, they sat in the library and started on names again with a renewed energy.

'Okay, okay, this is a good one, I promise,' the Doctor said.

'Let's hear it.'

'Clara...'

Her eyebrows rose. They'd agreed not to directly name the babies after either of them. But she let him continue.

'Oswin...'

No. He wasn't.

'And Oswald!'

'No! No, no, no. Just no.'

'But it's _perfect! _Clara, Oswin, and Oswald! Clara and Oswin for the girls, Oswald for the boy.'

'No. Though I _have _always liked Oswin. I think that was my favourite echo name. Used that one a few times actually.'

'I like it too! Let's name one Oswin.'

'I guess it's not _really_ naming her after me...Especially if we changed up the spelling. Like with a "y" instead of a "i"?' She wrote it out to show him. 'Oswyn.'

'Oswyn, eh? Ella and Oswyn. I like it! And what about their brother? Might I suggest Elvern?'

'That's the real reason you wanted to name them after me! So that I'd agree to Elvern!'

'No it wasn't, I promise it wasn't...okay maybe a little bit.'

She made a noise of disgust. 'I knew it. But we aren't naming him Elvern, I don't care what you do to persuade me.'

He sighed. 'So what do we got?' He looked at the list he'd been making. 'Ellis, Rory, Elvern -'

'Take Elvern off the list or I swear I'll...'

'You'll what?'

'I don't know but you won't like it. I promise you that.'

'Fine.' He erased it with much mumbling and grumbling. 'Ian, Jamie -'

'No, no, not Jamie. That works as a girl's name too. We have to give him something that's definitely a boy name. He's going to need it with two sisters.'

'Agreed.' He crossed it off. 'Boys are hard to name!'

'No wonder you stick with "the Doctor."' She pulled a baby naming book off the shelf and started flipping through. 'Who comes up with these names? I'm close to giving up.'

'Well, we've got two done, anyway! That's something! Two out of three! That's more than half!'

'I guess we've plenty of time to think about it.' She shut the book and put it back on the shelf. 'I suppose we'll have to think of middle names next...'

The Doctor groaned. 'Don't even start.'

* * *

**So that's all then. Hope I didn't offend any Elverns out there. Never heard the name before, just saw it in my baby name book (yes I keep one for writing purposes) and I have nothing against it, I promise. The opinions expressed herein are the opinions of the individual characters and do not reflect the opinion of the author. Oooh, that sound so official! Name suggestions for the boy are appreciated. I've had a few from NancyBoy.87 but I'm really greedy and I like to have a lot of suggestions before I decide. **


	11. Chapter 10

**What is this?! I owe you a chapter again?! And I'm really close to another one. If my fingers fall off from typing, I blame all of you!**

* * *

'What are you smiling about?' the Doctor asked Clara as they lay side by side, looking up at an amazing sky on a planet the Doctor promised was safe.

'I was thinking about our wedding.'

He smiled. 'That was a great day.'

They lay there thinking about it for a few moments.

The Doctor, struck with a sudden thought, said, 'Do you think you're father has forgiven me for...?'

'I don't know. I'm sure he hasn't forgotten, that's for sure.' She laughed.

'Are you ready to tell him yet? About our babies?'

'No.'

'But why not?'

There was no getting out of it. She would have explain. She only hoped he wouldn't take it the wrong way. 'I just...I don't know how he's going to feel about...an alien fathering my children.'

He slowly sat up, and Clara tried to grab his arm to pull him back towards her, to make it okay, but he flinched away. She couldn't see his face now. 'I see.'

She sat up too, saying, 'Doctor...' But he turned his face away.

Quietly, he asked, 'Are you ashamed of me, Clara?'

'No! That's not it at all -'

'You decided you didn't want you friends at our wedding. You barely decided to invite your dad. You're ashamed of me.'

'I'm not!'

'And now we're having triplets and you're not going to tell anyone.'

'Doctor! Listen! Can you please just let me explain myself?'

'You can try.'

They didn't fight often, but when they did, it was always like this. He was too sensitive, Clara thought irritably. And he never listened to sense. But she took a deep breath and started again. 'If we go and tell him now, he'll worry about it until they're born. What will they be like, will they be normal, are we staying safe in our adventures? But if we wait and bring three healthy babies to show him, he'll see that everything is okay and he'll love them.'

The Doctor nodded slowly. 'Won't he be upset though? That you never even mentioned you were pregnant and then we show up with triplets?'

'Nah, he'll get over it. He'll be too busy with how perfect the three of them'll be to care.' She lay back down again, satisfied that it was settled.

The Doctor clearly saw the flaws in Clara's plan, but it was her father and her decision, he supposed. 'Let's get you back to the TARDIS.'

'But I'm enjoying myself here, lying in the sun,' Clara protested.

'I'm glad to hear it, love, but I think what you really need is a warm bath and off to bed. You don't sleep as much as you should.'

'You used to complain I slept too much.'

'That was before. You need plenty of rest now; got to stay healthy for Ella and Oswyn and...the boy.'

'We seriously need to name him.'

'Agreed. Tomorrow.'

He ran her bath for her, filling it to almost over-flowing with bubbles.

'Went a bit crazy there.'

'Is it too much? Do you want me to empty it and start over with less bubbles?'

She shook her head. 'No. It's perfect, thank you.'

He left and came back with a cup of tea, which he handed to her. 'Careful you don't spill or you'll be bathing in tea which would be silly.'

'You're waiting on me hand and foot,' she said, kissing him as he bent down to hand her the tea.

'That's what I'm here for,' he said, giving her a kiss on the forehead. 'Now, I want you to relax in that bath for as long as you need to, and then I'm going to tuck you into bed and you're going to get some rest.'

'Thank you.'

He turned to leave, and as he closed the door he said, "Enjoy your bath Clara! And Ella! And Oswyn! And...boy.'

* * *

**I already owe you guys ANOTHER CHAPTER so be watching for that in a bit. **


	12. Chapter 11

**So once again I owe you a chapter and oh look, four more follows and I'll owe you another. IT NEVER WILL END!**

* * *

Clara lay on a sofa in the library, reading a book.

'There you are! Have you any idea how long I've been looking for you?'

'Get me some fish fingers and custard!'

'Wait...What?'

'I _need_ fish fingers and custard!'

'Are you...Clara are you craving fish fingers and custard?'

'It's not me, it's these crazy children of yours. They've obviously inherited your bad tastes.'

She wasn't in one of her better moods at this time. But without a word, the Doctor left and came back with fish fingers and custard. She moved her legs to make room for him and he sat down. Then she replaced her legs across his lap. They shared the fish fingers and custard, and Clara, whose mood was improving, smiled at him.

'Want me to show you something awesome?'

He nodded.

She took one of his hands and gently, smiling at him the entire time, laid it on her stomach. 'Now wait.'

He waited, and something kicked against his hand. He looked at her in surprise. 'But...that's...that's...Clara it's one of our little babies! That's our baby and it moved! And it kicked me! That wasn't nice! What did you do?'

She laughed. 'It wasn't meant to be mean. They just do that. They've just started kicking. They're trying to move around. Crowded in there, with all three of them.'

'Which one was it, do you think?'

'I don't know. I like to think that it's..._Boy, _already tired of being the only boy stuck with two sisters.'

'What shall we name him? We really do need to decide, Clara. It's only four more months.'

'Yes, four months is going to go by really fast.'

'Four months is practically four minutes.'

'Let's see...Ella, Oswyn and... Something that sounds good with those two. So when we're introducing our kids to people, it flows nicely. Ella, Oswyn and...' She gestured dramatically.

'Elvern!'

'No! "These are our children, Ella, Oswyn...and then there's Elvern."'

There was a sharp kick against the Doctor's hand.

'See,' Clara said smugly. 'Someone doesn't like that.'

'I've been looking through some naming books,' Clara said, taking a notebook from the coffee table as she spoke, 'and I wrote down some names I liked. 'Elian,'

'There's a planet called that. You said no planets. Moving on.'

'But it's also a name.'

'So is Poosh, in some civilisations.'

'You just don't like it.'

'It's too close to Ella. You'll get them all mixed up when you're cross with them.'

'Hmm...good point.' She crossed it off. 'I really like Matt.'

'Why?'

Clara smiled and blushed a bit. 'Well there's this actor called Matt Smith...bears a really weird resemblance to you actually...'

'We're not naming him after some actor. That's rubbish. Next!'

She huffed a bit, but crossed it off the list. 'Benedict.'

'Benedict?!'

'Another actor I like.'

'No more actors!'

'All right, all right. I didn't think you'd go for it, but it was worth a try. Um...' she looked searched through the list for something he would like. 'I don't know, this is hard.'

'We don't have to do it now.'

'No, we have plenty of time.'

'Four whole months.'

'Four months is a very long time.'

'Oh, it's ages!'

And satisfied that they had both changed their minds from four months being minutes to being ages, they once again put aside the naming dilemma to be dealt with another day.

* * *

'I _still _say we should have an amusement park as a nursery. Just a small one.'

'No. You can programme an amusement park into the TARDIS if you want, but they're going to have a proper nursery to sleep in. They'd never be able to go to sleep in an amusement park! They'd be awake all night long! We need something calming.'

'Fine. What colour shall we paint it?'

'Red. I think red's a lovely colour and it will work for both genders.'

'But I thought you said we needed to have a calming nursery. Red isn't calming, and I know that because your little red dresses used to always drive me mad. But hey, here's an idea!'

'I'm all ears.'

'Since you want red, and you already know without my saying it that I want TARDIS blue, how about purple? Red and blue make purple!'

'Lovely idea, my dear, but I don't think..._Boy_ will like it.'

'Oi! I wear purple every day!'

Clara covered her mouth, realising her blunder. 'I didn't mean to say there's anything _wrong_ with purple for a boy, I just...'

'If it's a dark, manly sort of purple, there is nothing wrong with it.'

She stroked his arm all the way up until her hand rested on his shoulder, and she rubbed it comfortingly to make up. 'I think purple is perfect.'

They painted the walls purple, and the TARDIS created a holographic projection on the ceiling to look like an amazing, ever-changing display of stars. They went to several different planets, getting a little bit of something from each one, wanting the nursery to have furnishings from many different planets, because these babies were going to be travellers with the entire universe open to them.

Clara knew she was getting bigger every day, but one day she finally came to terms with the fact that she was _huge. _She felt properly exhausted all the time, but the Doctor made life incredibly easy for her, doing everything possible to make her more comfortable.

She still had almost three more weeks to go, but one night she got up to use the toilet and her water broke. 'Doctor! Get me to a hospital right now!'

As the Doctor flew the TARDIS as fast as he could, Clara's one, completely irrational thought was they still hadn't named poor little..._Boy._

* * *

**Reviews Please!**


	13. Chapter 12

**What is this? I owe you two more chapters! Do I have to change it to twenty followers? Nah, don't worry, I won't. I love you guys too much. So here we go!**

* * *

Clara woke up feeling somewhat disoriented. The Doctor was sitting next to her, and she was in a hospital.

'You're awake!' he said.

'What happened? I don't remember much.'

'You had a cesarean. They had to put you under general anesthesia in case anything went wrong.

She'd had her babies then? She couldn't remember. 'Did it? Go wrong I mean?'

'It went perfect, Clara.' He placed a light kiss on her forehead. 'They're perfect. All three.'

'Where are they? Can I see them?'

'Not yet, the doctor wants you to rest a bit first. Oh, and I hope you don't mind, I went ahead and named them.'

'You did what?' She tried to sit up, but the Doctor gently pushed her back down, pulling the bedclothes up to her chin.

'Shh, rest love. Ella Jane Smith and Oswyn Amelia Smith.'

'Oh, those are beautiful! But what about the boy?'

'Well since Rory was the only one we had ever agreed on, I was about to go with that, but then I remembered his last name was Williams, and so I thought William would do nicely.'

'It's wonderful. You did an excellent job, my love. What's his middle name?'

'I thought Oswald would be nice. I know you want our surnames to be Smith but I thought it would be nice to include yours too.'

'William Oswald Smith. It's a big name.'

'For a very tiny baby.'

'Oh, is he very small then? I forgot even to ask how big they are...I'm so nervous I've got so many questions...' her expression changed to one almost of horror. 'I'm a mum! Of three babies! How are we going to manage this?'

'Don't worry, Clara, we'll manage just perfectly.'

When they finally brought in the babies, there were only two, snuggled together in one cot. Clara panicked for a moment.

'What's going on? Why are there only two?'

'It's okay, Mrs Smith, Ella is really tiny so we're keeping an eye on her, that's all. So far she seems to be all right.'

Clara breathed a sigh of relief, but she still felt some trepidation. The Doctor handed her one of the babies and he held the other. She looked down at it, hardly daring to breathe. The baby was sleeping, and she didn't want it to wake.

'He-Hello...' she looked at the wristband to see which of her babies it was. 'Oswyn. Hello Oswyn.' She felt a lump in her throat and couldn't say anything else. Oswyn was so impossibly tiny and so perfect. She couldn't imagine how little Ella must be. William was only slightly bigger than Oswyn, but all three were very small.

The Doctor held William so that she could see him too, and she put a hand to his little tiny face. He flinched slightly at first, but then wriggled contentedly. 'Hello William, my beautiful son.' She beamed at the Doctor.

'We _made_ these, Clara! Me and you, together, we _made_ these!'

She smiled. 'That's what we do. I guess. Though how about no more for awhile, okay? Three is quite enough.'

He leaned down to kiss her. 'Three is perfect.'

It was a few days before they would let her see Ella, because Clara was too weak to sit up. She enjoyed all the time she was spending with William and Oswyn, but she couldn't help but worry about that third baby girl. So the Doctor went and came back with pictures for her to see.

'My stars!' Clara gasped. 'She's looks...well look at her!' Ella was covered in wires and tubes.

He took her hand. 'It's okay, Clara. She's doing fine.'

'She looks so tiny and helpless.' She squeezed his hand tight.

'I know. But that's why they're taking good care of her.'

When Clara could finally sit up, they wheeled her in to see Ella. She was even tinier in person than in the picture. The Doctor could hold her in one hand.

'Hello Ella,' Clara said, voice barely above a whisper. It took a lot of manoeuvring of wires before Clara could hold her, but she didn't care. She was perfect.

After an entire week in the hospital, Clara, Oswyn, and William were discharged. Clara looked dejected as they went into the TARDIS, laying the two sleeping babies in their cots.

'What's wrong, Clara?'

'It's just...poor little Ella. I miss her already and I don't want to wait, what did they say, nine more days? Before we take her home.'

'Clara, it's a time machine!' He punched in some coordinates and ran towards the doors. 'Coming?'

'Coming where?'

'To visit Ella, the next day!'

She smiled. 'But what about Oswyn and William?'

'They're napping, and we'll hurry, look!' He held up a device. 'This will tell me if they wake up. Come on!'

They jumped ahead to each visit, and finally, within a few hours, it was time to take Ella home.

'Thank you,' Clara said, as they walked back to the TARDIS with their little treasure.

'Don't thank me, Clara. I wanted to get her home just as badly.

They laid Ella in her little cot too, and then sat in the nursery, watching them sleep.

'I don't like the way they look, all tiny in those big cots,' the Doctor said. 'They look lonely.'

Clara stood up and moved them all to one cot. 'I agree. They were together so long, we'd best keep them together now.'

They fell asleep in the nursery that night.

* * *

**Random abrupt ending! Because I have to write a second chapter so yes. **


	14. Chapter 13

**Here's another...and two more followers and there'll be another...what is this why?**

* * *

'DOCTOR! HURRY!' Clara yelled, as she held a screaming Ella and William and stared helplessly at a screaming Oswyn. 'I don't have three arms you know!'

'Coming, coming!' He ran into the room and picked up Oswyn. 'I could get you a third arm if you'd like. It was a huge fad in the 34th century.'

'No thanks,' she said, 'however tempting that might sound at times.' They had to shout to be heard over all the screaming.

'What do they need?'

'All three need to be fed and Oswyn needs her nappie changed.'

'Oh. That's convenient then that she happened to be the one you needed me to hold.'

'I don't know what you're talking about,' she said innocently, kissing his cheek as she walked past him, towards the nursery door.

'Where are you going?!'

'Kitchen, to get their bottles.'

She would've liked to take a picture of the pure helplessness on his face.

He joined her in a few moments. She had Ella and William lying on their backs on the counter and was holding a bottle in both of their mouths.

She laughed. 'Pretty sure this isn't the proper technique. Don't tell on me!'

'I won't. Is there a third bottle for Oswyn?'

'On the counter over there,' she said, nodding her head in that direction.

He found the bottle and fed it to Oswyn.

'I thought we'd go see my dad today. They're a whole month old now, it's starting to feel worse and worse not letting him meet them.'

'That's an excellent idea! I'll go get the pram.' He left, still carrying Oswyn. He returned, pushing Oswyn in the pram, and Clara laid Ella and William beside her.

'There, all set to go then.'

* * *

Clara glanced nervously at the Doctor, her hand hesitating to knock. He smiled encouragement, and she took a deep breath.

Her dad opened the door. 'Oh, you and that Doctor again.'

'Hi, Dad. We just came because...well we'd like to introduce you to your grandchildren.'

'My WHAT?!'

Clara wasn't expecting that, and she felt a little defensive. 'Your grandchildren!'

'Ah, Clara?' the Doctor started nervously tugging at her elbow, but she ignored him She was too angry at this point.

'The Doctor and I had kids, what did you think was going to happen?'

'Clara...

'They're triplets, Ella, Oswyn and Will -'

'You were just here yesterday telling me you were getting married!'

Clara turned her anger on the Doctor, who took a step back. 'I was trying to tell you...'

'Tell her what?' Her dad was looking very confused and very angry.

'That...this joke was a terrible idea!'

Clara gave him a puzzled look, but let him continue.

'Joke?' Mr Oswald asked.

'Yes! Joke! Um...see...some mates of mine just had triplets and Clara thought it would be funny to tell you they were ours. It was just...'

'A joke!' Clara finished. It was a really stupid explanation, but the only one they had at this point.

Mr Oswald considered it, then smiled a little. 'All right...'

'Well, anyway, goodbye Mr Oswald!'

'Goodbye, Dad!'

'Goodbye...' He still looked a bit confused.

The Doctor closed the TARDIS doors and he and Clara collapsed into breathless laughter, because what else could they do?

'_Please _never do that to me again! Make sure you have the right coordinates next time!' Clara said.

'I will, I promise! So, want to try again?'

'I suppose we have to...'

He punched in different coordinates and flew the TARDIS again.

'Are you sure this time?'

'Yes.'

'Completely, properly sure?'

'_Yes!_'

'Because if you're not -'

'Come on Clara!' He took the pram and pushed it out of the TARDIS, and she had no choice but to follow him.

First, they had to explain to Mr Oswald what had happened the first time, and he was not entirely amused, but he was relieved that they didn't have as bad a sense of humour as he had thought all this time. He was also pleased to see that his three grandchildren were normal and healthy, and they had a nice visit all in all.

Back in the TARDIS, they put the babies into their cot and then went into their room, which they had moved so that it was connected to the nursery by a door.

They got into bed, happy to be alone for a rare moment.

'Have I ever told you how beautiful you are, Clara?'

'You have, yes, but I wouldn't mind hearing it again.'

'You...' -he kissed her- 'are...' -he kissed her again,' "beautiful!'

She snuggled up closer to him, and he stroked her hair.

'You know, Clara, as much as I love our babies, I also love when it's just us.'

'So do I, Chin.'

And then there was a small whimpering from the next room. Clara groaned and started to get up, but the Doctor held her back.

'Shhh, just wait. Maybe they'll go back to sleep.'

Clara lay back down in his arms again. 'So, where were we?'

But then the small whimpering was joined by another, and then it turned into screaming, and soon all three were screaming their little heads off.

The exhausted parents sighed and shook their heads at each other.

'Guess we'll have company tonight?'

'I guess we will.'

* * *

**That's all for now! But I'm going to be back soon I fear, two followers away darn it!**

**Edit: Hehe I had to fix this because at the beginning instead of "huge fad" it said "hug fad" O.o**


	15. Chapter 14

**Here again...AGAIN.**

* * *

They got into a pretty good routine of caring for the babies. In the morning, the Doctor would hold two at once while Clara changed the nappy and clothes of the third, and then she'd take that one and one other and the Doctor would change one, and then they would do rock-paper-scissors for the last.

'Ha! Paper covers rock, I win!' Clara said. 'Looks like you have a nappy to change!'

'No! Look!' He blew on her hand. 'The wind blew the paper away off the rock, and the rock is now the winner!'

'No, the paper hasn't blown away because I used glue. See, still there.' She held her hand firmly on top of his fist. 'Hasn't blown away.'

'The glue hasn't dried yet so I can easily remove the paper.' He tried to pry her hand away.

'But that handy little gust of wind dried the glue.' She clamped it down tight.

'It can still be removed.'

'It's strong glue.'

'I'LL USE A CHISEL!'

Clara started to say something, then shook her head. 'You know what? This is childish. And it happens every single morning. One of us should just change the nappy.'

'Agreed. Here you go,' he handed her William, who, poor little boy, had been waiting all this time to have his nappy changed.

She laughed. 'That's funny. Now go change it.'

'Me!'

'You!'

'You're the mum!'

'You're the dad.'

'You were a nanny!'

'You were a father and a grandfather!'

'I'm a TIME LORD!'

'What, is there some official Time Lord code against the changing of nappies? Because I don't remember one.'

'You probably had countless babies in your other lives!'

'How do I know the same isn't true of you?'

'It's not fair!'

'Oh, wait a moment. I seem to recall carrying all three of them around for about nine months, then having a long recovery in a hospital after a surgery. So guess what? I win!'

'You _always_ use that.'

'Because it works, so it'd be a shame not to. See you in the kitchen!'

After all the babies had been changed, they fed them their bottles and then laid the babies in a playpen while they ate their own breakfasts. After that, they just sat around in the TARDIS, playing with the babies, watching films, reading books. Clara expected the Doctor to go mad. Surprisingly though, he was enjoying it. Every once in awhile, she could see a certain look in his eyes, and she knew he wanted to go somewhere.

'Doctor, I can tell you miss travelling.'

'What? Me? No!'

'You do. I know that look you get in your eyes. That restless look, I can see it.'

'I love this life.'

'I know you do, but that doesn't mean you don't miss the adventures.'

'Okay, maybe just a bit.'

'So I was thinking and...as long as you know of a place that you can _promise me_ is safe, well, maybe it's time for their first adventure.'

'Do you mean it?'

'Well, we have to let them sometime! Besides, I missed travelling too.'

'Well then, Ella, Oswyn, and William, are you ready to see something awesome?'

* * *

**Next chapter (which thankfully I'm far from having to do yet): the babies' first (safety-conscious) adventure! (No whouffle triplets were harmed in the making of this fic).**


	16. Chapter 15

**So I watched a thing about how stars were formed and it gave me inspiration and technically I don't owe you a chapter yet but you'll get one anyway because of that. So here you go!**

* * *

Even though Clara had been the one to suggest taking the babies on an adventure, she was almost starting to regret it. She knew the Doctor would never intentionally put them in any kind of danger, but that was never his intent with anyone, and he always lost them anyway. She felt bad, thinking like that, but she couldn't help it.

Still, the babies were six months old, and during those six months the Doctor and Clara only had the very rare adventure when they left the babies with Mr Oswald for a bit. Clara was getting a bit restless, and she couldn't imagine how the Doctor was feeling. It wasn't that she wanted to be chased by aliens and save the Universe exactly, she just at least wanted to see something outside of the TARDIS. And if the babies were going to grow up in the TARDIS, they'd have to start travelling sooner or later. They might as well start now.

They took the babies into the console room, which they were rarely allowed in because Oswyn was already beginning to crawl around, and there was no telling what could happen if they were left in there. The Doctor started punching in coordinates.

'Where are we going?' Clara asked.

'It's a surprise!'

The TARDIS flew more gently than usual, probably because of the presence of the babies.

'We're here!' the Doctor announced, picking up William and Oswyn. Clara held Ella. The TARDIS swung the doors open, and the family went and stood in the doorway.

Clara gasped. Before them was a great cloud of coloured, glittering dust, swirling madly around an increasingly growing and glowing core. It was beautiful and dizzying and going at an incredible speed.

'It's the birth of a star,' the Doctor explained. 'I speeded it up a bit so that we could watch it from beginning to end. That cloud of dust is a nebula. And it's turning into a star, using itself up and making something beautiful.'

The babies stared, completely mesmerised by the sight, William's big brown eyes were round and slightly worried, Oswyn was smiling and talking in her own babbling way, and her green eyes shone, and little Ella clung to Clara's dress collar, but looked interested.

Clara watched silently as that beautiful nebula slowly spent itself and the star grew and grew. It was beautiful, a joyful procession going round and round, celebrating the birth, but slowly disappearing, slowly dying down, losing its lustre and going from its original red and blue to brown. Dying. Tears formed in her eyes, which she tried to wipe away with the back of her free hand before the Doctor noticed.

But he did notice. He always noticed.

'Clara, what's wrong? What is it?'

'It's...it's just...it's dying. That nebula. And the Universe is going to go on, and that star will live for longer, but soon it's going to die too. And the Universe is still going to be there, and there will be others...'

'It's just dust and rock, Clara. It's nothing to cry about. It's just doing what it's supposed to, creating a star,' he said it in a comforting tone, but there was confusion in his voice as well because he truly did not understand.

But she couldn't stop crying, and her crying intensified until she was properly sobbing. Ella looked at her with a strange intelligence in her baby eyes, and Clara tried to stop for the sake of her babies, because now William was starting to sniffle a bit too. But she couldn't stop and she couldn't tell the Doctor why she was crying either; why the sight before her felt like a glimpse of their future.

'Clara, it's okay,' the Doctor said, unable to comfort her because his arms were full.

Slowly, she calmed down and put on a smile, quickly shifting into smiling-mummy mode, pointing at the newly born star with the few, sad particles of dust still going round and round, memories and relics of a mad life that went too fast, sped up even faster by the Doctor's technology.

'Look Ella! Look William! Look Oswyn! A star!' she said enthusiastically, but she saw the Doctor looking at her thoughtfully, and knew that they would be having a talk later.

After their adventure, it was nap-time for the triplets, and the Doctor and Clara tucked them into their one cot (they had tried many times to move the growing babies to their own cots, but they only cried until they were together again) and tiptoed out of the room.

'Now,' the Doctor said, 'I want you to tell me why you were crying like that.'

'It was nothing.'

'Your tears are never nothing, Clara. Your tears saved my home.'

'This was just silly though.'

'And what, Love, is wrong with silly?'

'Nothin',' she said, in her Victorian barmaid voice, 'still married to you, ain't I?'

He laughed and pulled her into his arms, rubbing up and down her back and burying his head in the top of her hair. Moving his head down so that his mouth was level with her ear, he murmured, 'Tell me what's wrong. Let me fix it.'

'It's just...it reminded me of us...of what's going to happen.'

'What do you mean?'

She pressed herself closer against him, wanting to hear better the comforting sound of his double heartbeat. 'One day...I'll be gone, like that nebula. And...our babies will be like that star...and you'll just keep going on like the Universe does, long after this family is gone.' She paused a moment, then quickly added, 'And that's fine! You should. The Universe needs its Doctor. And you should find happiness again and all that but...It's just...it's all got very real to me.'

He was quiet for a few moments, and Clara was worried that she'd upset him. But then he said, 'Let me show you something.' He took her hand and led her to the console room, letting go to run to the console and fiddle with it a bit. 'I didn't show you how the story ended, Clara.' He went back to where she stood at the mouth of the corridor and took her hand. 'Let me show you now.'

She followed him to the doors, which he opened, revealing a solar system full of planets.

'It's the same star,' he explained. 'That nebula provided enough left over dust to make all of this. And guess what? Every one of those planets is inhabited. Thriving in fact! Full to the brim with life. That nebula was beautiful and wonderful, and even though it's gone, it left plenty behind.'

Clara felt such a big lump in her throat that she couldn't even speak. Finally she managed a small, 'Thank you.' It wasn't all the things that she wanted to say, but she knew the Doctor understood her perfectly, and that was one of the things she loved about him.

He grinned. 'We have a bit of time before the kids wake up, and that handy device I made will let us know when they're awake. Want to visit one of those planets?'

'Can we? I've missed this!'

'Of course! Which one would you like?'

Clara studied the solar system before them very seriously, as though she could possibly tell anything about the planets from this far away. She pointed to a random one and said, 'That one, I should think.'

* * *

**Just some emotional stuff. Reviews?**


	17. Chapter 16

**So I wrote this chapter, accidentally didn't save it, and had to reconstruct it from memory. It was better originally, I promise!**

**Also: yes the triplets just went from being 6 months old to two years old in one chapter. They're going to grow up a lot during this story so there's going to have to be some small jumps like this. I have to skip to the good bits or it will get really boring, I promise you. I've worked with kids of all ages, and let me tell you, really little babies are completely adorable and they do the cutest, funniest little things. But do you know what happens when you try to tell people about those things? It doesn't sound as funny, or cute, and people stop listening, and then you feel frustrated because no one understands the cute. So imagine if I wrote like twenty chapters of them giggling and gurgling and playing peekaboo. You would hate me. So don't criticise the time jump!**

* * *

The TARDIS was not babyproof. It was okay when they were newborns; it was even okay when they first started crawling, because they couldn't go very far before someone noticed. Even when they started taking their first wobbly steps, they couldn't walk far without a coffee table or something to grab onto, so they didn't venture very far. But now that they were two years old, and they were fast. Faster then you could believe. You couldn't turn your back, look away, or blink, because they would be gone. Clara started jokingly referring to them as the weeping angels. Also, they looked like little angels and certainly did a lot of crying.

The TARDIS usually made sure to keep them out of trouble by rearranging rooms, but not always. One day, Clara was in the kitchen, humming to herself and making a souffle, and she had asked the TARDIS to move the children's playroom so that it was adjacent to the kitchen. The TARDIS had done so, and Clara could hear them and make sure everything was okay. After a while, though, she noticed things had got awfully quiet.

She went to check on them and the playroom was empty.

Trying not to panic, she walked down the corridor, calling their names. She knew that William and maybe Ella would come as soon as they heard her voice. Oswyn wouldn't, but once she had the other two, they'd show her where Oswyn was. Sure enough, William appeared from around a corner, covered from head to toe in paint. The different colours were mixing to create shades of brackish brown colour.

'William!' Clara said, closing her eyes to the paint for the time, and hugging him in spite of the fact that it was getting on her. 'Where did Ella and Oswyn get to?'

'Paint!'

'Can you show me where?'

He ran excitedly down the hallway in a stumbling, clumsy way. He was going to be just like his father, Clara thought. She'd already caught him wearing a fez. He didn't really seem to know where he was going, though, so once again, Clara started calling Ella and Oswyn. She knew Oswyn would ignore her, but Ella might not. And sure enough, Ella appeared from around a corner up ahead. Oswyn was close behind, studying Clara's face as though deciding whether or not to make a run for it. They were covered in paint as well.

'DOCTOR!' Clara yelled, because she was going to need backup.

He came running, disheveled from tinkering with the console all morning. 'What's wrong? Someone hurt?'

'Look at them! What do you keep in here?!'

'Ah. I see they discovered the painting room.'

'Since when do we have a painting room? What does that even mean?'

'Long story really. I found some paints just lying about one day and I thought, might as well try them out. I didn't have a brush so I decided to finger paint and it was really fun and then I thought why just use your fingers, that's rubbish. Why not cover yourself completely in paint and use giant canvases. So - well perhaps I could show you.'

He led her down several corridors, following the little footprints of paint the kids had made. Eventually, they stopped at a door which had been left open. Clara took a step inside.

The room was enormous, with walls that were giant canvases and other large canvases propped against them. At one end of the room was a huge roll of paper that one could roll out and paint on. And standing all around were great tubs of paint that one could climb inside.

Clara glared at the ceiling, addressing the TARDIS. 'Whatever happened to making sure they didn't find their way to anyplace destructive? Why don't we just award you Gran of the Year! Good job!' She clapped sarcastically.

The TARDIS made an accusing whirring sound.

'Oi! I was busy making a souffle! And I'm not the one who can rearrange rooms whenever I please. Oh, but you were probably nodding off, weren't you? Getting on a bit aren't you?'

The TARDIS made an angry noise.

The Doctor felt the need to step in. 'Now if we could just-'

Clara said 'Stay out of it!' and at the same time, the TARDIS made a noise to that effect.

He took a step back, hands up in surrender.

Clara and the TARDIS continued to argue, which was frankly quite odd considering the TARDIS was only capable of making whirring noises that Clara could only pretend to understand, and finally the Doctor, acting on a sudden impulse and nothing else, dipped his hand into some red paint and flung it at Clara.

There was a terrifying silence. The Doctor believed he'd made the biggest mistake of his life.

And then, Clara slowly reached into some blue paint and flung it towards him. Oswyn started laughing and dipped her hands into some green, running to smear it on Clara's dress with her little hands. Ella shyly flicked some pink at the Doctor, and soon they were all laughing as paint flew everywhere. Except for William, who hung back in the doorway, looking terrified. Oswyn, seeing this, ran over to him, pushing her unruly brown hair out of her face with paint-covered hands, and grabbing his hand to drag him towards a pot of yellow paint, which she pushed him into.

Everyone stopped, and Clara rushed forward a couple of steps, ready to try and stop a fountain of tears. William was very sensitive; he was going to be very upset. Slowly, he climbed out, standing before them all, a forlorn mix of dripping colours, mostly yellow. Everyone held their breath.

Then, he laughed. He ran towards Oswyn, taunting her with his dripping hands as she ran away shrieking. Ella joined in. They weren't very good at running and there was an awful lot of falling involved, but none of them seemed to mind it. The Doctor reached for the red paint again and drew a heart on Clara's cheek with his finger. She smiled and they embraced each other, laughing when they felt the kids fling themselves against their legs - the whole family in one messy hug.

'Look at us!' Clara laughed. 'How will we ever get clean?'

As if in answer, outside the doorway they saw water beginning to fall in the corridor like rain. The Doctor grabbed her hand and the hand of Ella, who was the child standing nearest him.

'Wait - no. You're not -'

'Oh yes.'

'That's insane!'

'Geronimo!'

She quickly grabbed Oswyn's hand, and William hung back but Oswyn forcibly snatched up his hand, and they all ran into the hallway yelling 'Geronimo!'

The triplets danced under the water and the Doctor joined them as Clara gasped with laughter, leaning against the wall. The Doctor noticed her just standing there and he came forward very formally, offering his hand and bowing. 'Would you care to dance, my love?'

She shook her head.

But he didn't listen and, slipping an arm around her waist and taking one of her hands in his, dragged her away from the wall to the centre of the corridor. She decided to go along with it.

'I don't believe we have danced since that time I took you to 19th century France, during our honeymoon.'

'Has it been so long as all that?'

'It has, yes.'

'Well that's ridiculous. We must dance more often from now on.'

'Mummy's a princess,' they heard Oswyn whisper, and they turned to see all three children watching them wonderingly.

The Doctor let go of Clara and got down to the level of the children. 'Would you like to know a secret?'

They nodded vigorously.

He looked over his shoulder at Clara, as though to make sure she wasn't listening (she was, and he knew she was) and then whispered, 'Your mummy is actually a queen!'

Clara couldn't help but laugh at that. 'Doctor, don't tell them nonsense like that!'

'This does not concern you, my dear!' he said over his shoulder. Turning back to the children he whispered, 'Shhh, she tries to keep it a secret. But she's the queen. Queen of the entire Universe. And you,' he pointed at William, 'are a prince. And you girls are princesses.'

Their eyes filled with absolute excitement at that, and the Doctor, laughing, went back to Clara.

'You shouldn't tell them lies.'

'It's not a lie. It's a story.'

She shook her head, and then they noticed that the water had shut off. Clara shivered.

'I think we need to all go get some dry clothes on.'

They slowly turned and looked at the children, who were playing and laughing and full of energy. It took a lot of effort to change them these days, because they didn't like to sit still. And they were especially hyper at the moment.

'You take one, I take one, and we'll rock paper scissors for the third?'

'It's a deal.'

* * *

**Just fluffy silliness. I promise it was better before but I did my best so what are you going to do?**


	18. Chapter 17

**So yes I got an idea from NancyBoy.87 and I owe you all an update so...yes here I am. Let's begin. **

**Just a note, I'm partially through writing this and I popped back up here to warn you that it gets very awkward half-way through so if you are afraid of awkward social situations, run. Also, surprise! Kids are now three and a half to four-ish. Decided that partially through.**

* * *

'Clara, do you think it's time we took them for a real adventure? Like out of the TARDIS?'

They had just got back from an adventure and were enjoying some time alone, snuggled up on the library sofa, before going to pick up the kids from Clara's dad's house.

Clara took a sip of tea, thoughtfully. 'Well. If you think they're ready. It's just...if anything were to happen to them...'

He shook his head and cupped his hand around her face. 'I would rip this Universe apart to prevent anything from happening.'

She smiled. 'I know you would. Well, just like last time, it would have to be somewhere absolutely safe. And I mean completely and totally.'

'I promise it will be, cross my hearts. Already have a place picked out!'

'Let me guess, it's a surprise?'

'Wouldn't be fun if it wasn't. Now let's go!'

'Already?'

'Clara, we've been gone for two days. Not for them, of course. If I can land at the time I intend to land, it will only have been an hour. But still.'

'I know but...just one more night?'

He frowned.

'No, you're right. I miss them too.' She stretched lazily and got off the sofa and walked with him to the console room, smiling as he draped his arm across her shoulders.

* * *

When they knocked, they heard Mr Oswald's voice saying 'Come in!' They opened the door to see him on his hands and knees, with Ella and William riding on his back and Oswyn throwing them all off balance by trying to climb on too.

'How long have we been gone?' the Doctor asked, as casually as he could. Which was not very casually. He looked rather nervous.

'Only an hour,' he said, as he gently shook the kids from his back and stood up, wincing slightly. 'Why? I mean, you would think that with that fancy appliance of yours -'

Clara shook her head fiercely, her eyes very wide. He did not want to go there.

'Anyhow, yes it's only been an hour. We had a lot of fun, didn't we kids?'

'Yes Gramps!' William said sweetly.

Ella was distracted by something, and Oswyn was whimpering at him to 'be a pony again!'

'What do you say to Gramps?' Clara asked.

'Thank you Gramps,' William said.

'Thank you,' Ella said.

Oswyn was scowling.

'Oswyn...' Clara said warningly.

She rolled her big green eyes. '_Thank you_.'

'Sorry,' Clara said to her dad.

'Don't worry about it,' Mr Oswald said, brushing it off. 'Just imagine what she'll be like as a teenager.'

'_Thanks_,' Clara said, rolling her eyes.

'I can see where Oswyn gets it from,' the Doctor commented.

Clara clamped her hand over her mouth.

'Well, we'd best be going,' the Doctor said. He glanced out the window. 'Winter here, isn't it? Kids! Where are your jackets? Or do they have jackets?'

'Of course they have jackets! What kind of mother do you think I am?'

'I put their jackets over here,' Mr Oswald said, picking up three little jackets, one blue, one pink, and one red from a chair. They each took a kid and a jacket and pretty soon they were all ready to go.

'Thanks, Dad!' Clara said, giving him a quick hug. Their relationship had improved a lot since he'd started babysitting. 'Kids! Hug your gramps!'

They all gave him a hug, and Clara ushered them out towards the TARDIS, sticking her head back inside when she noticed the Doctor wasn't with them. 'Coming, love?'

'He'll be a minute,' Mr Oswald said, and Clara looked at them thoughtfully, then nodded and disappeared again.

The Doctor looked a bit nervous.

Mr Oswald held out his hand.

The Doctor regarded it with some apprehension, scratching his head and bending slightly to examine it, then, giving Mr Oswald a questioning gaze, took it and kissed it.

Mr Oswald cleared his throat and unobtrusively wiped his hand on his trousers. 'Well. Here we shake hands but...I see your planet has different customs.'

'Oh! Handshake! Yes I can do a handshake!' He excitedly took Mr Oswald's hand and shook it with nervous enthusiasm. 'I wasn't sure, you see.'

'Yes.' He still looked at the Doctor with some suspicion as he carefully extricated his hand from his son-in-law's enthusiastic grasp. 'Well, anyhow, I just wanted to say that...Let's be honest, I wasn't thrilled about my daughter marrying you. I mean, you being an alien and all...It's still a bit strange to think about. But I must say that those kids are the best things to come into my life since...well...a long time.'

'Since your wife passed away,' the Doctor said, quietly and with understanding.

'Yes. Not a lot of good since then. And I know those kids wouldn't be the same if they had a different father. So thank you.'

He looked puzzled.

Mr Oswald looked confused at his puzzlement, and they stood there for a few awkward moments looking confused.

'Oh! You're thanking me for fathering your grandchildren!'

'I...I suppose'

There was another long awkward silence.

Clara popped her head in again. 'Doctor?'

'Coming, love! Goodbye Mr Oswald,' the Doctor said.

'Oh, please call me Dave.'

'Goodbye Dave!' He gave him a big hug which clearly made the poor man the slightest bit uncomfortable, but he patted him stiffly on the back.

'Bring the kids by soon!' he called after the departing couple, who shouted back that they would be sure to do so, waving once more before going back into the TARDIS.

'I think your dad likes me now!' the Doctor happily told Clara. 'He thanked me for having kids with you.'

'I doubt that's the wording he used, but I'm glad to hear that you two are getting along. So, where are we going?'

'Still a surprise. But not for long!' he flew the TARDIS to their destination. 'Now, take those jackets off. They're not going to need them.'

Once they were all ready, the Doctor leaned down and looked at them seriously. 'Are you ready for the funnest planet you will ever see?'

They nodded.

'I don't know if you can handle it...'

Clara interrupted. 'Stop teasing them! Let's get on with it!'

He opened the TARDIS doors. It looked like an ice planet or something.

'Uh, Doctor? Sure they don't need their jackets?'

'Does it feel cold to you?'

'It looks like it should be cold.'

'Ah, but that's not ice. Look!' He picked her up bridal style.

'What are you doing?' she laughed. 'Put me down!'

'Okay!' he tossed her out of the TARDIS and she shrieked, expecting to fall on some ice or snow or something.

And instead, she bounced. High into the air, landing and bouncing again and again and again, gradually slowing down until she just lay there, staring up at the sky. It was definitely a sky - they were definitely outside. But it felt like a bounce house.

'Where are we?' she asked, as the Doctor threw the kids, who were screaming and laughing, one by one as he had thrown their mother, before jumping himself.

'Well, I like to call it the bounce house planet, but unfortunately it is properly known by the much less exciting name of Planet X-476 of the Revaw solar system.'

'What's it made out of? Actually, never mind, I don't care. It's amazing!'

'Well then don't just lay there! Get up and jump!'

She sat up and saw that him and the kids jumping, and he held out his hand to her to help her stand up. They stayed there for about an hour, and then they saw that the kids were getting a bit tired.

'Time to call it a day?' Clara suggested.

The Doctor agreed, and they got everyone back into the TARDIS.

* * *

The Doctor had insisted that he could put the children to bed on his own and that she should go make herself a cuppa and relax. She took her time in the kitchen, scrounging about in the cupboards and eating a bit of this, a bit of that, making herself some tea, and just enjoying the time to herself. It was such a lovely thing of him to do, she thought.

Slowly she made her way to their bedroom, stopping by the library to grab a nice novel on the way. Reaching the bedroom, she laid the book on one of the armchairs by the fire and went to the closet, where she changed into a nightdress and put on her dressing gown. Then she curled up in the chair and opened her novel.

And that was when it struck her that the Doctor was simply putting the kids to bed, yet it had been almost half an hour. She crept over to the door that joined their room to the nursery and listened.

'And then you died!' Clara heard Oswyn say, which was rather a concerning thing to hear.

'No but I didn't! I'm deflecting the dragon's fire with my shield. And look, now I'm the princess.' He made his voice high-pitched. 'Save me! Save me brave knight!' His voice changed to normal again. 'Don't worry princess! I'm the best knight there is! But now I'm the dragon look!'

Clara opened the door then to see him crawling on the floor, sticking his tongue out. None of them noticed her at first.

'Why's your tongue out?' William asked.

'It's not my tongue! It's fire!'

'Okay, hate to interrupt this but what are you doing?' Clara asked, making them all jump because no one had noticed her.

'Ah! Clara! You can be the princess!'

'I'll be no such thing!'

'But it's tiring being the knight, the princess, the dragon, and occasionally the evil stepmother!'

'Sounds like it must be so hard on you,' she said sarcastically.

'It is!'

'So what's this now?'

'Daddy's telling us stories,' Oswyn informed her. 'He told us true ones.'

'But this one's pretend,' Ella added.

'I see.' Clara sat down at the edge of the bed where the three of them were huddled. They had beds now, and even though they usually slept in their own, some mornings the Doctor and Clara would find them all huddled into one bed. 'What kinds of stories was he telling you?'

'A really brave man sat by a box. And it was lots of years. And there was a girl inside. And he waited until she could come out,' Oswyn explained.

'He kept her safe,' Ella added.

'The Last Centurion,' Clara said quietly. 'I know that story.' She glanced at the Doctor, who was looking down and fiddling with his waistcoat buttons.

'Did he tell you about the time he met dinosaurs on a spaceship? He likes to tell that one.'

They nodded.

'He rode a...' William squinched up his face in concentration.

'A triceratops,' the Doctor interjected.

'And did he tell you about being on a pirate ship?'

They nodded again.

'He didn't tell you anything scary, did he?'

'No.'

'That's good.' She was quiet a moment, then she said, 'I have some stories too.'

'You do?'

'I do. Did you know that I invented fish?'

'Really?'

'Why?'

'Because I dislike swimming alone.'

They stared at her with new respect in their eyes.

'Well, storytime is over for tonight!' she said. 'Into your own beds. William, Oswyn, get out of Ella's bed. Get in your own!' They scrambled into their own beds and lay very still. She knew it wouldn't last, but at least they were pretending. She kissed each of them goodnight and the Doctor did the same, and then they turned out the light and went to their own room.

'So what was that...acting I wandered in on?'

'Oh! That was a story I was making up! I realised that most of my real adventures are too scary for kids.'

'So you thought fire-breathing dragons would be more appropriate?'

'Yes. But when you put it that way, no.'

She laughed.

'Did you have a nice time to yourself, anyway?'

'I did, thank you.' She climbed into their bed. 'Do you think they'll be in here tonight? After you scared them with dragons?'

'Sorry.'

'No, I'm teasing. It looked like they were enjoying the story.'

'Well, regardless, they haven't been in here for a couple of nights, so I'd say they'll probably be in here tonight. I'm going to bet two in the morning?'

'Good thing we have such a big bed.'

'So, Clara, I was thinking...'

'What?'

'That is...three children is a lot of work, but it's also a lot of fun, so I was just kind of thinking that maybe...'

'What?!'

'One more wouldn't really...'

'WHAT?!'

'I'll take that as a no then.'

She smiled into her pillow, but didn't let him see.

* * *

**Random abrupt ending again! Reviews? **


	19. Chapter 18

**I owe you another chapter so let's get it over with then (I'm in a very wonderful mood if you can't tell)**

* * *

The Doctor woke up to the sound of Clara being sick.

Again.

'Clara?' he called. 'Are you okay?'

'Fine!' she said, entering the room with false cheeriness. 'Just went for the toilet, that's all.'

She always lied about it. But he just nodded like he believed her.

'You woke up?' She asked it with slight suspicion, as if trying to see whether he suspected her.

'I can always tell when you're not here, the bed gets so cold.'

She nodded, seeming to believe him. Or maybe she was just pretending as well. She climbed into bed and lay on her back, motionless, staring at the ceiling.

'Are you all right?'

She flinched at the question and defensively asked, "Why? What makes you say that?'

'It's okay. I know.'

'What? What do you know?'

'You keep being sick. You think you're hiding it but you're not.'

'I just...have a weak stomach.'

'Clara, we have three four year olds. You do not have a weak stomach.'

She rolled onto her side facing away from him.

'Clara...'

'Goodnight!'

'Clara, do you think you might be pregnant?'

'No!'

'Because I think -'

'Goodnight!'

He frowned and rolled over so that his back faced her too. 'Goodnight,' he grumbled.

He lay there for a few moments until he couldn't take it anymore. He rolled over and saw that she was at the very edge of the bed, as far away as possible. He slowly inched up until he was right next to her, peeking around her to see her face. 'I'm sorry.'

She rolled over on her stomach, burying her face in her pillow, but he heard a faint giggle.

'Goodnight Clara,' he said, giving her a kiss on the back of her head since the front of her head was hidden. And then he crawled back over to his own pillow.

Just before he fell asleep, he felt Clara's arms wrap around him. He smiled, hugged her back, and they both slept.

* * *

'Mummy! Mummy! _Mmmmuuuuummmmyyyyyyyyy_!'

She sighed, turning from the stove where she was cooking eggs for breakfast just in time to see Ella latch herself tightly to her legs. Oswyn was just behind her, holding something behind her back.

Clara sighed tiredly. 'What's going on?'

'She...she put ice down my shirt!'

'Did not!'

'You did!'

'Did not!'

'What have you got in your hands, Oswyn?' Clara asked.

'Nothing...'

'Oswyn, show me your hands.'

She slowly took her hands from behind her back and opened them to reveal a mostly melted bit of ice. 'I was going to put it in my water.'

'Uh huh. Don't put ice down anyone's shirt, okay? Where's William?'

The girls glanced at each other.

'Well?'

'He's hiding,' Oswyn said finally.

'Where is he hiding?'

'We put him in the cupboard!' Ella blurted out.

'Why would you do a thing like that? Go let him out right now. That was very mean and very naughty of you, and I expect you to apologise.'

They reluctantly left the kitchen.

The Doctor wandered in, coming up behind her to wrap his arms around her and bury his chin into her hair.

'What's for breakfast?'

'Eggs.'

'-terminate?'

She whacked him gently with the back of her hand. 'Go find the kids, it's almost ready.'

Once all the kids were at the table, the Doctor helped her pass out plates. They sat down to eat, but Clara took one look at her food, covered her mouth, and quickly left the room.

'Mummy's sick again,' Ella said quietly.

'Mummy's always sick,' William added. 'Is she okay?'

The Doctor nodded. 'She's fine. I'm going to go check on her, just stay here and eat your breaky okay?'

They nodded and he left quickly. He found Clara kneeling in front of a toilet, her hair gathered back from her face in one hand, just sitting there to make sure she was done being sick. She stood up when she noticed him in the doorway. 'I thought I was going to be sick,' she said quickly, laughing self-consciously.

'Clara, you _were_ sick. It's okay to admit it.'

'Don't know why I keep getting sick like this.'

'I do.'

'No you don't. You're not actually a proper doctor.'

'You don't have to be a proper doctor to recognise morning sickness, especially when your wife has been pregnant once before.'

'I'm not pregnant!'

'Oh, good. Then you won't mind if I run a quick scan, just to be sure? Since you're _absolutely_ not pregnant.'

'You'd be wasting your time.'

'Good thing we live in a time machine! Now come on. To the medbay!'

'No.'

'Why? It's okay, Clara. We'll manage this.'

'I'm not pregnant okay? Leave me alone. I'm going to go check on the kids.'

She went back to the kitchen, all three pairs of eyes turning to look at her.

'Are you okay mummy?' William asked.

'I'm fine, sweetheart.'

After breakfast, the kids went into their playroom to play, and the Doctor helped Clara clear the table and wash the dishes. Once that was done, Clara tried to sneak out of the kitchen.

'Hang on, we're not finished.'

She stopped with a loud sigh.

'We're going to the medbay.' He took her hand and led her to the medbay, where he did a quick scan.

'Well?' she asked, trying to act like she wasn't nervous to find out the results, even though she was.

'You, Mrs Smith, are pregnant.'

'No I am _not_!'

'Clara, this technology is very advanced. It's virtually never wrong. Are you really going to argue with it?'

'No. You're right. Arguing is silly. I'm just going to kill you.'

'Excuse me?'

'I am going to kill you.'

'And by kill do you mean properly kill because you said you were going to kill me last time when we found out there were three of them and you didn't so I just want to clarify...'

'I really am going to properly kill you right now. You idiot! You got me pregnant again!'

'What do you want me to say? I'm Sorry? Yes. That's good. I am sorry. Though in all fairness, it _has_ been four years.'

'We can't manage four! We barely figured out how to manage three! And what if...' her eyes widened in horror 'What if it's more than one? I heard somewhere that if you have a multiple birth it's more likely you'll have another one in the future. If we have another set of triplets...'

'I'm guessing the threat is so terrible that I don't want to hear the end of it. But don't worry! We can manage four. Or however many we end up with. Tell you what? I think you need some time to rest. How about you go make yourself comfortable in the library and I'll drop the kids off at your dad's?' He kissed her. 'It's really going to be okay.'

She tried her best to believe him.

* * *

**I'm tired so I'll end it there. Sorry, NoLongerAGuest. I didn't exactly lie though, because at the time I responded to your review, I was not planning on Clara being pregnant again yet. Hope you don't mind much! So, reviews?**


	20. Chapter 19

**I actually don't owe you a chapter but I'm going to do one anyway out of the benevolence in my heart. No just kidding it's just because I've got nothing better to do. **

* * *

They decided they'd better tell Mr Oswald and the kids, so when they dropped the kids off, they stayed a moment to tell the news.

They thought about doing something creative or letting it come out gradually, but in the end, once they'd got everyone sitting still to listen, the Doctor just blurted out, 'Clara's pregnant again!'

Mr Oswald looked shocked, and the kids just looked confused until Clara explained to them that there would be a new baby in the family.

'Why?' Ella asked.

'Yes, dear,' Clara said, turning to the Doctor. '_Why?'_

Mr Oswald could sense the tension and said, 'I think I have some biscuits in the kitchen. I'm going to go get them.' With that he made a hasty retreat.

'Well,' the Doctor said, looking uncertainly from kid to kid. 'When two people love each other very, very much...'

'Never mind that's enough of that!' Clara interjected. 'We're having a baby because...'

Mr Oswald returned with the biscuits, but hovered in the doorway as though ready to flee.

'To give you someone to play with!' the Doctor said. 'Besides...you know...the other two siblings you each already have. And because babies are wonderful and...we like them,' he finished weakly.

Clara nodded. 'What your father said.'

'But...how?' Oswyn asked.

'How?!' The Doctor gulped. 'That's a great question for your mother.'

'Oh, silly me!' Mr Oswald said. 'I should have put the kettle on when I got the biscuits!' He left the room again.

'The baby is inside of me,' Clara explained. 'Right here.' She gently patted her abdomen.

'In _there?'_

'Yes. That's where babies go when they're growing.'

'How does it come out?' William asked.

Before the Doctor or Clara could decide who would deal with that question, Oswyn spoke up.

'Through her mouth! That's why she keeps being sick, 'cos it wants to come out. It's not ready yet though.'

They all seemed satisfied with that, so neither bothered to correct them.

Mr Oswald came back in to hug Clara and ask how long they'd known and thank them for telling him this time. He cautiously shook hands with the Doctor, obviously still a bit wary from the last time, and then they left him with the kids.

'You know what?' Clara said when they were back in the TARDIS. 'I'm kind of excited for a baby. Even though I hate to admit it.'

'So I can live?'

'You can live.' She gave him a big hug. 'Because babies are wonderful and we like them,' she teased.

'Oi! You wouldn't let me give a proper explanation!'

'They're four years old!'

'Exactly. Which is why I gave an age-appropriate one. Also, you're one to talk, now they think you're going to vomit out a baby one of these days.'

'Yeah...we should probably clarify that at some point.'

'But not today.'

'No, not today.'

They smiled at each other, both relieved to be getting along again.

'So, Clara, we've got the whole TARDIS to ourselves...'

'So we do.'

'So I was thinking...'

'I'm going to go make a souffle, you're welcome to join me!' she called, already halfway down the corridor.

'Right...just what I was thinking.'

They made a proper mess of the kitchen and had a lot of fun. When Clara wasn't looking, the Doctor soniced the souffle with a new setting he'd installed, making it rise perfectly.

Clara gasped when she pulled it out of the oven. 'I don't believe it! A proper souffle, an actual, proper souffle!'

'Really? What a surprise! I always knew you could do it!'

Her eyes narrowed. 'What did you do to it?'

'What? I don't know what you're implying but -'

'You did something to it. You don't expect me to believe I just up and made a perfect souffle after all these years trying.'

'There's a first for everything, eh?'

'And there's apparently a setting for everything except wood,' she said, handing him the sonic. In answer to his confused face, she added, 'You left it sitting out.'

'Oh.'

'Oh indeed. Thank you though, it means a lot that you would try to do that. We'd better eat it now, see if your sonic made it taste as good as it looks.'

They took it to the library where they curled up on their favourite sofa, right in front of a fireplace, and they ate it together.

'I'm sorry about the baby, Clara. I know you weren't ready,' the Doctor said, after they'd finished the souffle and just snuggled in silence for awhile.

'Sorry? Don't be sorry! I was just overreacting because I was scared. I think four years was a good time to wait, and I'm as ready as I'll ever be.'

'You're sure?'

'Completely!'

'Well I'm glad.' He kissed her. 'Because babies are wonderful and we like them.'

* * *

**That's just about the cheesiest place I could end it but have no fear, I'm thinking of doing another chapter so that should wash the bad cheese taste from your mouth. :) Reviews? Now, when I say reviews, I'm not just saying that to say it! People keep following and favouriting but I only have like three faithful reviewers! How do you expect me to know what you like and don't like if you never review?! Okay, that is all, proceed with your day.**


	21. Chapter 20

**Here's another chapter even though I'm not supposed to have to update yet. I actually wrote two so I'll be posting the next one as well. I wrote that one first and then realised I needed this one. **

* * *

The kids were more excited about the baby then they had ever been about anything. They couldn't understand that there was really a baby inside of their mum, and the fact that all three of them had once been inside her, together, was altogether too much for them to wrap their minds around.

They started drawing pictures for the baby and whispering things to it. Clara didn't have the heart to tell them it couldn't hear them yet. She couldn't wait until the time came when they'd be able to feel it kicking. She imagined the wonder in their eyes when she showed them that.

'I suppose we'll have to start thinking names again,' the Doctor said thoughtfully one day.

'Don't you even start.'

'The kids can help this time.'

'That will make it even worse! You'll suggest something terrible like "Poosh" and they'll back you up and it'll be me against all of you!'

He laughed. 'Then prepare for something unique!'

They told the kids they were thinking of names, so that they could be a part of it too.

Oswyn was filled with suggestions, including but not limited to 'blue,' 'flower,' 'princess,' 'puppy,' 'snowflake,' and 'pretty.' But those names were nothing compared to Ella's. She had started making names up.

She would proudly approach her parents and announce she'd made a name for the baby. They'd ask what it was, and she'd say something like 'fluna' or 'jobily' or 'grencla.'

William had absolutely nothing to offer to the naming dilemma. He liked whatever name anyone else suggested.

Eventually, they decided to put it aside for awhile. They had plenty of time, they said, because obviously they had learned no lessons about how fast time flies from the last time.

They were all so excited about the baby, and the whole family was so happy. Clara hoped it would last, the giggling and the picture drawing and the happy togetherness. Which was why the first time she found blood in her knickers, she ignored it.

* * *

**Cheerful! Whoops, not when you get to the end. I'm really sorry, I really didn't want to do this. But...well read the next chapter.**


	22. Chapter 21

**Still don't owe you an update; still here. Hugs are welcome but gifts will also work and yes I can be bribed. But you're not actually going to be thanking me by the end of this.**

* * *

It started at dinner one night, when the kids were with Mr Oswald. Clara was cooking for the Doctor even though he wanted to take her out, because she said she liked cooking for just the two of them sometimes. He was sitting and talking to her, helping with little things here and there when she'd let him, and suddenly she wrapped one arm around her abdomen and grasped the worktop with the other hand, bending slightly and gasping.

'Are you all right?' he asked, jumping to his feet.

She waved him away. 'Fine,' she said, straightening up. 'Just a weird cramp.'

He didn't remember anything like that happening with the triplets, but he didn't think too much of it because, knowing his Clara, if he wasn't there to see it she'd never tell him. She could have been having cramps all the time when he wasn't there, he didn't know. So he dropped it.

They had a nice meal, but Clara seemed a bit distracted.

'Are you feeling all right?' he asked her.

She brushed it off, but he knew she wasn't well.

When she got up to clear the dishes, he noticed something. On her blue dress, right on her rump was a small spot of red like a flower. Red blood.

'Clara?' He knew that was not supposed to happen.

'What is it?'

'You're bleeding.'

'What? Did I cut myself when I was making dinner?' She searched her hands for a wound.

'No, you're bleeding...down _there._'

'What?' She left the room and he followed her. She went for the nearest toilet, saying 'I've got this,' when he almost followed her in. He waited impatiently outside.

'Are you all right?' He hoped she wasn't _bleeding_ bleeding. Told himself she could have come in contact with some blood somewhere, maybe. Or some paint! Yes paint. Those kids were always leaving messes. Trust them to leave a spot of paint somewhere.

'I'm fine,' she said, opening the door. 'Just a bit of spotting. Probably happens sometimes.'

'Clara, we need to get you to a doctor. What if something's wrong with the baby?'

'There's nothing wrong with my baby!'

'You can't live in denial all the time! First it was denial that you were pregnant, now that something could be wrong. Saying something isn't true doesn't make it not true.'

'I'm fine,' she repeated, more firmly.

'Look, let's just see Martha...'

'No, I'm fine.'

'Okay.' He wasn't going to push it. Clara knew her body, he guessed. He hoped she was right.

She said she missed the kids, so he went to pick them up while she went for a lie down. She ended up deciding that she'd just go to bed early. She was having some cramps, she said. She still insisted she was fine. The kids came to her for their good night kisses and she told them she loved them.

When the Doctor came to bed, she appeared to be asleep but he could tell she was pretending. He let her alone.

In the morning, she was already up when he woke. She told him she was fine. He wanted to believe her, but he caught her taking pain medicine several times. 'Headache,' she would say. He didn't believe her.

Two days after that first cramp in the kitchen, she disappeared. He spent an hour looking for her, and finally, walking past one of the toilets, he heard faint sobbing. He knocked on the door. 'Clara?'

She took a moment to respond, obviously trying to make her voice sound normal. 'Could...could you drop the kids at my dad's? And then come here I...I need you.'

He hurried to round up the kids who were happy to visit their grandfather but a bit confused at the urgency.

'Is the baby coming?' Ella asked.

'I don't know, Ella,' the Doctor responded. Under his breath, he added, 'I hope not.'

He hastily dropped them off. Mr Oswald, seeing the state he was in, asked if anything was the matter. 'Clara, baby,' was all he could manage before dashing back to the TARDIS.

'It's way too soon!' Mr Oswald called after him. "What is she, seven weeks now?

'I know!' he called back, before running inside and shutting the doors. the TARDIS moved things so that the first room he came to was where Clara was.

He knocked gently on the door, and she sobbed something that he knew meant 'come in.'

_So much blood._

He remembered wondering how Clara's little body could hold so much blood. And more importantly, how it could lose so much blood and still keep her going. To be sure, she was very pale and slumped on the floor.

'Clara,' he whispered, closing his eyes to the blood, and especially to that little bit of greyish tissue. He knew instinctively what that was. He sat beside her and pulled her into his lap, wiping the tears from her eyes and smoothing her tangled hair from her face.

'I, uh...I guess it's...it's...' a sob racked her body suddenly and she couldn't continue.

'It's okay,' he said, holding her against his chest. 'It's going to be okay.'

'No it isn't!' she pulled away. 'It's not okay! It's _gone. _Nothing is okay.' She stood up shakily and left the room.

The Doctor followed her. 'Clara, wait -'

'I'm going to go lie down.'

'Don't you want to bathe? I think a nice warm bath would do you good, love.'

'I'm fine,' she said in a flat voice. 'Why would I need a bath?'

'Well...because...' He found he couldn't speak of the blood. On her dress, down her legs... He closed his eyes to try to make it all go away. It was a nightmare. That was all.

She continued her shaky, stumble-filled walk towards their bedroom, and when she reached it she headed straight for the bed. He laid a gentle hand on her arm before she got there and shook his head.

'Clara, come here. I'm going to give you a bath.'

He tenderly bathed her, just like they bathed the triplets, and the whole time she was completely passive and statue-like. She seemed to have no emotions at all. He wanted to scream at her. 'Don't you even care?!' But he didn't. He knew she did care. She cared too much for crying right now.

He helped her out of the warm water that was now a dull red, and he tried not to think about the reason for that, and he dried her off and helped her dress. Dressing her was like dressing a doll. She gave very little assistance. She hadn't cried since he found her.

She crawled into bed without speaking to him. When he tried to kiss her, she coldly turned her head to offer her cheek instead of her lips. It was like marble. His marble statue of a wife. His marble statue of a wife and the blood and it was his fault and a baby that she hadn't wanted at first that was his fault because he was selfish and the blood and the statue and he didn't want to think. He turned out the light to get some peace, but red spots appeared whenever he closed his eyes. _So. Much. Blood. _

He woke up to hear her sobbing uncontrollably. He took her into his arms and placed delicate kisses onto her now moist cheeks. She was alive again. And it was worse than the statue. 'Tell me what you're thinking about.'

'I just...I don't believe it. I was taking care of myself. I never did anything, Doctor, I never...'

He sat up and pulled her into his lap, rocking her silently against his chest.

'It was my fault. I should have let you take me to Martha when I first started spotting. I shouldn't have been so stubborn. It's my fault. I may as well have killed it.'

'Clara, it's not your fault. Martha couldn't have done anything.'

'It's my fault.'

'It's not your fault, Clara. By the time you started bleeding, the baby was probably already... All Martha would have done was confirm it.'

She started crying again, but less violently, and he held her as closely as he could. When she fell asleep, he laid her gently into bed, and silently slipped into the console room, where he deleted the room with all that blood and pain.

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**I'm so sorry! I wasn't sure about doing this but then I did. Please forgive me!**


	23. Chapter 22

**Okay, I hate me for the last chapter just as much as you lot do. But it's okay...actually no it isn't. It isn't okay at all. But...um...yeah actually I have no idea how I'm going to fix this. Let's just see what happens shall we? **

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The one thing the Doctor wanted in the world was for the previous night to have been no more than a nightmare. He rolled over to see Clara in a deep sleep beside him, and he watched her a moment, her sweet tousled hair and the steady sound of her breathing. It certainly could have been his nightmare. He got up, slowly dressing himself, becoming more and more convinced that it hadn't happened. By the time he was putting on his bowtie, he was certain he had dreamt it.

It kind of bothered him that he didn't remember what _really_ happened the night before, if that had been a nightmare, but he couldn't worry about that. Starting to whistle in order to get his mind on something else, he went into the bathroom to shave.

_Clara's crumpled dress on the floor._

_Clara's blood-soaked crumpled dress on the floor._

_The murky bathwater that had not been drained._

_Clara's blood-soaked crumpled dress on the floor in front of the tub with the murky bathwater that had not been drained._

He covered his eyes with a weary hand, backing out of the bathroom slowly.

'Would you mind cleaning that up, old girl?' he murmured. 'I can't...I can't bear to look at it.'

The TARDIS made a soothing noise and when he went back in there, the tub was empty and sparkling clean, the dress was gone completely, and all was well.

But it was too late. His delusion was shattered.

He decided he had to do something for Clara. If he was this torn up, imagine how she must feel. The baby had been inside of her; she had bonded more closely with it than he could imagine.

'I'll take her on a nice adventure. Always cheers _me_ up. I'm sure it will be just the thing.'

The TARDIS signified that she did not approve.

'Of course she would like that!'

The TARDIS still did not approve, and suggested something else.

'Just let her rest? Bring her breakfast in bed? Are you sure about that?'

The TARDIS was very sure.

'Fine, if you say so. We'll try it.'

He made her one of his wonderful omelettes along with some tea. Strong stuff - he left the bag in - because she was going to need something strong. He took a quick trip to get her some of the prettiest flowers in the universe, which he added to the tray. He regarded it thoughtfully for a couple of moments, then added some Jammie Dodgers for good measure.

He found her awake, looking fragile and small, staring at the canopy of the bed.

'How are you feeling, love?' he asked tentatively, approaching her side.

She shrugged almost imperceptibly.

Setting the tray down, he said, 'I brought you some breakfast.'

'I'm not hungry.'

'Clara, you have to eat. You're very weak, maybe I should take you to a hospital or -'

'No.'

'Well then at least eat something.'

'Maybe.'

'Thank you.' He hovered uncertainly for a moment. 'Would you like me to stay with you or go?'

'I'd like to be alone.'

'Okay. If that's what you want.' He turned to leave the room. All he wanted to do right now was hug her tightly and make her feel better, to tell her that it hadn't been and never would be her fault, to tell her that he would love her to the ends of the Universe regardless if they ever had another baby or not, to tell her that they could try again if she wanted, whenever she was ready, or never speak of babies again if she'd rather not. To tell her that he loved her so much. But if she wanted to be alone, then he'd leave her be.

He wandered aimlessly through the TARDIS, accompanied every now and then by the soothing sounds she made to let him know he was never alone in the vast ship.

He realised that they would have to tell the kids. The weight of that thought was far too much. How to explain to three four year olds that they weren't having a baby brother or sister after all? How to explain the baby had died? How to explain 'died'? How would he do it when they stared at him, two with Clara's big brown eyes and one with his own green ones, heartbroken and not understanding why?

He decided not to pick them up just yet. He'd swing back and pick them up an hour after he'd left them. No, ten minutes. To save them and Clara's father excess worrying and waiting. Until then, he and Clara would have the one thing they never had, the one thing they needed right now: time.

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**This was going to be a lot longer but this is all for now. Reviews please!**


	24. Chapter 23

**Agh I hate how depressing this has got! I'm very sorry but I might be updating less on this until it gets to a happier place where I have more ideas. Oh, but guess what? You'll be happy to know, jacks marie, that a bit of the wedding is talked about this time.**

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It had been three days and Clara finally decided she was ready to leave their room for the first time. She'd mostly been laying in bed, and the Doctor hadn't said anything about it or acted like he minded. He would bring her food at mealtimes and perhaps a thoughtful cup of tea at random times through the day, and every night he would make her get up and take a bath. But other than that, he basically left her alone. She had asked to be left alone.

But she wished he wouldn't have listened. She wanted him to insist, to tell her that he wasn't going to leave her and there was no use arguing. She wondered if he really did think it was her fault, and didn't want to be around her because of it. Couldn't bear the sight of her. Two of the nights he hadn't even come to bed. If only she hadn't been so stubborn...

She did a lot of sleeping those three days, and for some reason she always dreamed about the wedding. She supposed because it was such a bright spot in their lives, back when the whole thing was starting out, with everything spread out before them like a clean, white sheet. At any rate, the dream was always the same.

It started out exactly as things had happened. After they had picked up her dad, the Doctor had pressed the button to scoop up his friends from everywhere. All of his past companions had appeared in the TARDIS, and they'd all found suitable wedding clothes in the wardrobe. There had been a bit of squabbling between them because not all of them got along well, but nothing serious. He flew to that planet and they turned the papers in, and the whole thing was arranged at once.

She walked down the aisle on her dad's arm, her Doctor smiling at her as she got closer and closer. Everyone was so quiet, almost holding their breath as they watched her, that the only sounds were the music and the faint whispering of her dress. The ceremony went beautifully. They had written their own vows because they felt their vows should be as unique as their marriage was going to be.

'Clara Oswald, I take you to be my wife and companion for as long as we are able to be together. I promise to love you and keep you safe always, to cherish and honour and protect you. I promise to share with you all the beauty that this universe has to offer and to stay by your side for as long as I can. Today, Clara, I lay the entire universe and both my hearts with it at your feet.'

'Doctor...' her voice broke and she felt the tears already beginning to well up in her eyes. She laughed nervously and the audience laughed sympathetically with her. 'I take you as my husband. I promise always to love you and to be there for you wherever you choose to go. I will support you in everything you do and love and honour you always. I'll stick to you for as long as this little human heart can beat, from this day forwards.'

They exchanged rings, and the Doctor had to hold Clara's hand still because it was shaking so badly. She smiled at him and he almost kissed her, through the veil and everything, but the official said, 'Slow down! It's not time for that yet!'

The audience laughed, but Clara was concentrating on how adorable the Doctor looked, blushing and giving her a shy glance as he finished up with the ring.

'_Now_ you may kiss the bride!'

He got tangled in her veil trying to lift it, so she just plucked it out of her hair and let it flutter away to the side somewhere as she flung herself at him and they kissed amidst cheers and laughter and gentle teasing.

The Doctor danced with everyone at the reception, but with Clara most of all. At some point in the evening, he did something that Clara couldn't quite remember the details of except that it made her dad very angry and wasn't something that would soon be forgotten. All this part of her dream was just as it had been.

As the Doctor led her back towards the TARDIS (all of the guests would automatically be transported back home, he had assured her), the dream suddenly changed from what had actually happened. The sky darkened and the Doctor was pulled away from her by some unknown force, and she was left all alone. She looked down at her hands and saw that they were covered in blood, and a voice, the Doctor's, told her that it was the blood of their baby. And it was all on her own hands.

She always woke up then, in tears. Usually it was during the day when the Doctor was not there, so she didn't have to tell him about it. Occasionally, though, it was at night, so she would make up a lie, say she'd had a dream about being chased by cybermen or something to that effect to get him to go back to sleep and not worry.

But after three terrible days and nights of lying there and having that dream every time she closed her eyes, she got up and dressed herself and left the bedroom. She found the Doctor under the console. Tinkering. He always did that when he was nervous or bored.

'Hello,' she said, to alert him of her presence, because she honestly could think of nothing else.

He dropped his sonic. 'Clara! You're up!'

'I decided it was time to stop feeling sorry for myself.' She attempted a laugh but it died in her throat.

'I'm glad to see you up and dressed. I was worried about you.'

'Where are the kids?'

'At your dad's. We'll be there ten minutes after we left them, whenever you're ready.'

'Can we get them now? I miss hearing them. Their laughter and chatter. I think it would do me good.'

He jumped up and ran up the steps to the console with Clara on his heels. 'I'm so glad you said that. I miss them too but I wanted to give you time to rest.'

'Thank you. You've been so wonderful through all of this...'

'No,' he kissed her. '_You_ have been wonderful.'

Clara started to follow him out the doors, then stopped. 'I don't know if I can hold myself together.'

'Would you like me to go alone?'

'Yes, if you don't mind. Try to tell my dad what happened. I don't think I'm able to talk about it yet.'

He nodded. 'I'll be back before you know it. With the kids.'

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**Next chapter they're going to have to tell the kids what happened. I'm really dreading that. You'd think these are actual real four year olds from how badly I've been worrying about this. Reviews?**


	25. Chapter 24

**Haven't updated in awhile because I'm scared to death of writing this chapter. Geronimo!**

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The Doctor paused a moment before knocking on the door, trying to collect himself. He needed to be strong for Clara and her dad and the kids. He knocked on the door.

A pale-faced Dave Oswald answered. 'Doctor! How's Clara?'

'The kids...'

'Are playing out back. They can't hear.'

'Can I come in and sit down?'

Dave looked more and more worried by the second, but he nodded and opened the door wider for the Doctor to walk through. The Doctor took a seat on one of the sofas and looked down at his feet. 'Three days ago - well, for you lot, ten minutes - Clara miscarried.'

'Poor girl.' He sat down, and copied the Doctor by staring at his own feet. 'How's she taking it?'

'Well, the first couple of days she was not doing well. To be honest, I thought she'd gone out of her mind. But she's doing better now.'

'I guess you'll have to tell the kids?'

'Yes, we will.'

'I'm so sorry, I don't know what to say.' He let out a big breath. 'Clara wasn't our first child you know. Ellie lost her first baby.'

'I didn't know that.'

'No one knew that. Not even Clara, we never told her. Not the sort of thing you like to talk about. I know what it's like though, seeing that sort of thing happen, knowing your wife is taking it hard and not knowing what to do about it. It kind of pulls at your relationship. If you want me to keep the kids a bit longer so you two can have some time...'

'No, we've had three days, and Clara wants to see them now.'

'Okay, I'll go and fetch them.'

'Thank you. Don't - don't mention...'

He nodded understandingly. 'I won't.'

A moment later, all three kids were running in, hugging him and asking about mummy and the baby.

The Doctor attempted a smile for their sakes. 'We'll talk about that at home.' He led them to the TARDIS, and they ran and hugged Clara, still talking excitedly about the baby.

Ella kissed Clara's stomach and whispered 'hello' to the baby, and that was too much. Clara stood up quickly, covering her face with her hand, and left the room.

The children turned to their father in confusion. He sighed. He had not wanted to do this alone, but he was going to have to. He had to be the strong one because Clara couldn't.

He sat down on the floor and motioned them over. Oswyn and William sat next to him and Ella climbed into his lap. He supported her with one hand on her little back, and with his other hand he absently played with a strand of Oswyn's long brown hair that was just like her mum's.

'Do you know what "dead" is?' he asked quietly.

All three nodded. They had had a goldfish that had died a few months ago.

'It's like sleeping,' he continued, just to remind them. 'Except that you don't wake up. It doesn't hurt and it's not scary. It's just the end of living.' He took a deep breath. 'That's what happened to our baby. Sometimes babies just die inside of their mummies. Sometimes no one knows why. It just...happened. And mummy is very, very sad about it so we're going to have to be extra nice to her.'

At first, the kids did not really understand. But as it was explained to them a couple of times, they started crying. Clara came into the console room and hugged each of them tightly in turn. Her eyes were red and puffy, but she wasn't crying now. She was being strong for them, the Doctor knew.

Once the children had cried themselves out, the Doctor told them, 'It was a very sad thing that happened. But you don't have to be sad about it all day. It's okay to go and play.'

They left the room, and the Doctor pulled Clara into a hug.

'Go ahead and cry now,' he said. 'I know you were holding it back, and that was very brave and strong of you. But it's not your turn to be the strong one anymore. Now they're off playing, it's my turn to be strong for you.'

She broke down and had her first proper cry. She'd cried many times since she'd lost the baby, but she'd always quickly bottled it up again, putting on a brave face and keeping everything inside. Now she truly let all the emotions come out, going limp in his arms as she sobbed into his jacket. He held her up, comforting her without saying a word, letting her have this.

Her sobs became more broken and further apart until she was just whimpering quietly. He picked her up and carried her to their bedroom, sitting in one of the chairs by the fire with her in his lap, pulling a blanket around them. She gradually quieted down until she was lying peacefully in his arms.

'Are the kids okay?' he whispered to the TARDIS. He was shown a projection of the three of them in the playroom, building with blocks, and he nodded. 'Thank you.'

'What will we do?' Clara asked suddenly.

'We'll do what we always do, Clara. What I've learned to do after centuries upon centuries of loss. We'll stand up. And we'll stand up even stronger than we were when we got knocked down. And we'll run and we'll run, and we'll keep on running. And we will never, ever stop. And one day, we'll be okay again, ready for the next adventure.'

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**What do you think?**


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